Outtaverse part 13: People die
by Madcap13
Summary: The final in this series. Faith gets her dagger on, Spike has a ball and Xander’s wedding changes the world in more ways than anyone could’ve have imagined. Warning, character death.
1. Ticking timebomb

Outtaverse part 13: People die.

Summary : The final in this series. Faith gets her dagger on, Spike has a ball and Xander's wedding changes the world in more ways than anyone could've have imagined. Warning, character death.

Feedback: Tell me what you think about this series. Flame and blame welcome. :P

Disclaimer : I don't own the rights to BTVS, Charmed, Stargate or even the musical Grease.

Warning : Voilence, gore, actual and implied sexual acts and foot massage. It's pretty tame if you discount the fates of certain damned individuals. Oh and character death in case you missed that part.

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Xander's eyes opened slowly to the dimly lit room. With a smile he closed his eyes as Anya possessively snuggled up to him from behind and just let the moment of premarital bliss stretch on.

The night before, they hadn't had sex but had laid in each others arms as they slowly fell asleep. Being so close to her, all night long, it made his blood race but they had made an agreement to not have sex for three days until their wedding night. The agreement was supposed to be for a whole week but they couldn't keep their hands off each other on tuesday so now it was just three days.

Tomorrow was their wedding and Xander was scared yet strangely comfortable by the prospect. Maybe a little aroused also.

Yes, definitely aroused.

But then that could be because Anya was gently stroking his chest and laying soft kisses on his shoulder. Slowly, one of her hands crept down his front, two of the fingers walking as they did, until they rested on his hip. The hand stayed there for a moment, just feeling the texture of his thigh and driving him mad.

He couldn't resist her, not now, not ever.

"Please." he rasped, begging for release.

Excruciatingly slow, the hand smoothed over his hip and down to his groin and then he felt a strange sensation that he couldn't identify.

"Whuh?" he mumbled, looking down in confusion but not having the light to see what was going on.

Something snaked its way between his legs and pressed against his groin.

"You want this?" Spike asked with a smirk.

Xander screamed like a girl and jumped out of bed.

"Spike! What are you doing in my bed?" Xander asked, not recognizing his own voice.

"Uh, I fell asleep in it after we had sex." said Spike, wondering what the problem was.

Something gut-wrenching hit Xander's mind and he realized that he wasn't Xander at all but that he was Faith.

She was Faith.

"I'm Faith." Faith said, shaking her head, "Oh god. I'm not Xander at all, I'm Faith."

Spike gave her a worried look.

"Don't look at me like that." Faith shouted at him, "I'm not crazy."

"If you say so."

Faith groaned, "You know how sometimes you have a dream where you think you're a butterfly and you wake up and you think you're still the butterfly?"

Spike shook his head, "No, can't say I have."

"Well. It was like that."

Spike considered this, "And you thought you were Xander? Sounds horrible."

Faith almost said what she really thought but then gave a sarcastic "Like you wouldn't believe."

"So uh, you ready for a little wake up action?" Spike asked, "I know little Spike is."

Faith grimaced, "I'm totally not in the mood. Get the hell out of my bed!"

Spike sighed and flopped back into the bed. Faith got back in and forcibly kicked him out, under the sheets.

"Oof!" Spike grunted when he hit the floor, "Alright! I get it."

Faith grumbled and rolled over, bundling the sheets around her as she tried to get back to sleep.

Spike made a fuss of putting his clothes back on and walked out in a huff.

Finding that there was no way she'd get back to sleep after that rude awakening, Faith opened her eyes and sighed.

"Oh great. Now I'm horny." Faith growled and yelled out "SPIKE!"

After getting no response, she yelled out again "SPI-IKE!"

Muttering something unmentionable under her breath, she rolled over and opened up her chest of drawers.

Her hand fished around it for a bit until she found what she wanted and pulled it out. It was a small egg shaped vibrator connected to a battery pack by a long wire.

After a little discomfort under the sheets, she had it inside her just the way she liked it and she rested back, fiddling with the controls to get the right power setting. After finding what she liked, she dropped the control package next to her and pulled back the sheets to cover her.

After putting her hands behind her head, she leaned back, closed her eyes and soaked in the mellow vibrations with a content smile on her face.

Lying there, she found time to think. Thinking wasn't her favorite past time but sometimes it was unavoidable.

Thinking made her face the truth.

But what was the truth?

She was lonely and bitter. That was one truth.

She missed Richard, who everyone else called Wilkins or just the mayor.

She missed her robot love slave. Buffybot helped to keep her from thinking too much. The bot still had battery problems from after the watcher's attack on Kennedy and Buffy wasn't pushing Willow to fix it for Faith this time.

Buffy was still pissed at her. True, it wasn't a great change a pace but they were reaching something close to friendship before Dawn went all demony crazy.

Another truth was that she didn't have to stand for it. She could go out and kill Buffy.

But why didn't she? That's what she didn't understand.

Why was she acting so good?

Could she be good? Redeemed? Angel was big on that and had offered that path to her all those years ago.

The truth was being evil didn't bother her as much as she felt it should. Her body was another matter though. Since she betrayed Buffy, it felt like her skin was trying to crawl off her and her brain felt like a lead weight inside her skull. Sex was different too. She had to go to extreme lengths to get off now. Who ever heard of a girl with performance problems?

She'd never admit it but Harmony was the first good bit of ass she'd had since she'd turned evil. Oh sure, she'd had lots of sex since then, even with Angel when she thought she had stolen his soul but it just wasn't as satisfying.

It must be a psychological thing. There's no other explanation. She's always been a slayer but when she did the deed with Xander, she was still sore from fighting evil. When she was with Xander, she felt like the slayer. She needed him then and it was a great release. Now she just needed something to fill that empty hole in her heart and grabbed at anything that she thought might work. Sex, violence, pain, it was all the same.

It was painfully obvious what her future held. Without the mayor, without the thrill of really great sex, without the freedom to be herself, without her soul, without everything she had going for her, those fleeting moments of happiness in her life would slip from her fingers like sand through an hour glass.

There was a knock on her door and she called back "Come in", hoping it was Spike testing his luck.

The door opened and Kennedy popped her head in, "Hey Faith. We're making breakfast. Want the usual?"

Faith smiled as the vibrator between her legs kept buzzing but focused enough to say "Yeah sure. Sounds great. I'll be down shortly."

Kennedy frowned and tilted her head, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm just having the most wonderful dream." Faith said with a smirk.

"Don't you have to be asleep for that?" Kennedy chuckled.

"You mean I'm not?" Faith said ditzily and Kennedy shook her head and left the room.

Faith leant back into her pillow and closed her eyes as she felt the little egg inside start to work its magic.

OXOXOX

A few minutes later and Faith wandered downstairs and walked into the dining room. There were a few people there. Some of them were demons that had come for Anya's wedding and some of them were Xander's relatives. Faith had noticed, not for the first time, that there wasn't a lot of distinction between the two.

Not a morning person at all, Faith wiped her eyes and demanded, "Where the grub?"

"Dining is in the ballroom." a reasonably human looking demon said with a haughtily aristocratic accent.

Without thanking him, Faith shambled through the kitchen where Kennedy and a few people Faith didn't know were making mass quantities of breakfast. She kept walking past them and into the ballroom where flamenco music was being played and tables were set up for breakfast.

Her breakfast was sitting there with a white card which had "Faith" written ornately on it and with a live crab attacking her bacon strips. Quickly, she pulled on the bacon and said "Scoot." to the crab. At least, she thought it was a crab.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." a demon next to her on the table apologized and snatched the crab, immediately biting into it, shell and all.

Faith winced but sat down just the same. It took a lot to ruin her appetite.

Idly, she chewed on the bacon she had just liberated and looked around the room. In the middle of the room, people were practicing dancing for the wedding. There were a lot of people staying at the mansion, being invited on Xander's behalf for the wedding.

That in itself was a problem. The mansion wasn't built to act as a hotel. Instead of being composed mainly out of bedrooms, it was built more like a normal house just on a much larger scale. To deal with this, a few dividers were put in to make more rooms and some of the larger rooms were berthing more than five or six people at once.

Faith was one of the lucky ones, being mostly allowed to keep her room to herself. Xander put his foot down at allowing any of his relatives to even look inside her little paradise of bondage and pain. Anya tried to convince Xander that Faith's furniture was actually in vogue for some circles of demon but Xander didn't like the idea of demons and Faith sleeping in the same room. Any number of weird things could happen. The only room mate Faith had for the duration of the wedding was Dawn, who only used Faith's room to store her clothes and hide her weapons and the large circular revolving, vibrating bed that she owned. Since Dawn didn't actually need to sleep, the reason behind the purchase was obvious. Her not sleeping also meant that she could give up her room without too much hassle.

Kennedy had it much worse off, crammed in the same room with two of Xander's oddest aunts. Even Spike was sharing his basement with a few lesser demons that had flown in from Switzerland.

Faith idly poked her sunny side up egg and some runny yolk ran out, just the way she liked it. Before eating it, her eyes flicked up and looked around the room and noticed that everyone was watching the dance floor.

No, everyone was watching just Twist and Dawn on the dance floor.

There were other people practicing around them but Twist and Dawn were dancing a tango in stark contrast to those around them. They weren't just good but an exhibition all of their own.

Faith's mouth fell open as she watched them. Before they died, her parents danced Tango for years and had even taught her some but she had never seen it danced like this. It was sizzling with sexual tension. Their flushed faces, the unmasked want in their eyes, the way their hands moved heedless over the others bodies. It was like watching sex on stage, just without the awkward feeling.

"She's amazing, isn't she?" Kennedy asked as she sat down next to her in the seat on the other side of Faith.

Faith blinked at Kennedy being so blithe about this.

"Isn't that your girlfriend out there?" Faith asked.

Kennedy grinned proudly, "Yup. That's my girlfriend."

After the watcher fiasco, one good thing had come out of it. Dawn made her feelings for Kennedy known and it turned out Kennedy had some feelings to give back to the little demon girl.

"And you're okay with Twist pulling her pig tails out there?" Faith asked, "Any second now she'll be calling out his name."

Kennedy chuckled and she chewed on a bread stick, "Nah. I think she prefers the hole to the pole. Your words, not mine. Besides, what if she did? We've got an open relationship, remember? I know she'll always come back to me."

The music stopped playing and Dawn started making her way towards their table, holding up her long frilly blue dress as she ran towards them with a happy smile than showed her younger side.

"Talking of which, her she comes." Kennedy chuckled to Faith.

"Hey Faith." Dawn said hyperactively, "Could we borrow strangle-land for a few hours?"

Faith raised an eyebrow and shrugged, "Sure as long as you clean up afterwards."

The two giggling lesbians ran off, Dawn almost hitting someone on her way out the door.

Twist frowned then looked down at Faith and smiled.

"Don't even think about it." Faith said harshly.

"What? Dancing with you?" Twist asked as if he didn't know what she was talking about, "Come on, I can tell you're a dancer."

"How's that? Is it stamped on my ass?"

Twist nodded, "You're very transparent."

Faith poked the last of her egg into her mouth and considered his request.

"Hey, could we talk somewhere?" Faith asked.

Twist raised an eyebrow, "Talk? Is that double-talk for something else?"

Faith growled, "You know it's not. I just want to talk about something."

Twist chuckled, "I know it's not but sure, I'm up for anything."

Faith got up out of the chair and left the ballroom with Twist alongside.

Once in the hallway, she looked over at him and he was smiling an unnerving innocent smile back at her.

She reconsidered why she asked to talk to him and asked instead "So you're a whore, huh? I've been thinking about getting into that. I mean, I'm out almost every night combing the streets anyway. It would fit in with the lady of the night theme I've got going."

"It's a growth industry." Twist supplied helpfully but frowned and said "I think there something else you wanted to ask me."

Faith frowned, "How do you do that? You really can read minds can't you?"

"I don't really need to when so much is said by your body. It's saying you're struggling with something and you think I might be able to help you figure it out. Am I wrong?"

"You can figure that out by my body?"

Twist shrugged, "Maybe I can read minds a little bit. Dawn can."

Faith raised an eyebrow, "She can?"

Twist nodded, "Better than I can. I just pick up little bits here and there. She can delve right into people's heads and pull out all their dirty secrets without them even knowing."

Faith blinked at him, "She can?"

"Relax. She's learnt how to keep a secret. So what was your problem?"

Faith calmed herself and collected her thoughts as they continued walking down the long series of hallways in the mansion.

"Um. So you're a clone of the devil?"

Twist tilted his head curiously at her then nodded, "Chicks dig it. They think I'm the antichrist or something. Talk of which, Hey Lily, how's it shaking?"

A passing couple stopped and the male of the group asked his wife "Do you know this boy?"

The wife shook her head woodenly and they moved on.

Twist smirked at Faith and said "Lily's a screamer."

Faith looked back at the couple then back to Twist. She shook her head clear and asked "So all the stuff that happened in the bible is true?"

Twist sighed, "Ahh, so that's what this is about? Look, I'm not the person to talk to about this. I visited the Dalai Lama once but beyond that I'm not into religion."

They walked outside onto paved garden path and Faith said very quickly "I just want to know one thing."

Twist looked her in the eye and said "Yes, Hell is very real."

Faith clenched up her jaw then asked "You know what I've done, don't you? How I worked for the last mayor."

Twist nodded easily.

"Okay. Give me it straight. Am I going to hell or not?"

Without any emotion, Twist asked her, "What do you think?"

Faith's eyes widened almost beyond breaking point, "Oh god! I AM! Oh shit! I'm so screwed."

Twist smiled and held her by the shoulders, "Now that you've got that out of your system, I'll tell you. The honest truth is, I dont know. But going by the show of attrition you just showed, I'd lean towards not going to hell."

Faith blinked, "Really?"

Cyrus gave her a warm smile, "You've been bad. That's obvious. But I see you trying to be a good person. Keep trying, that's all that can be asked of you."

Faith frowned, "I don't know. I don't think I'll ever be able to make up for everything I've done."

Twist mused over this and asked "Tell me, how do you feel right now?"

Faith raised an eyebrow, "Right now? Crappy."

"Someone once told me that the afterlife is almost exactly like life. How you feel now is how you feel afterwards, just more so. If you're generally happy now, you'll go to the happy place. If you're sad, you'll go to purgatory and if you're a giant ball of anger and spite then… you work it out."

Faith groaned, "I am so screwed."

Twist shook his head woefully, "I don't know where the youth of today are headed."

"This coming from the demon whore?" Faith shot back angrily.

Twist laughed at her, "When you put it like that, it does sound funny, doesn't it?"

"I don't see what's so funny about this."

"You. You'd surprised how many champions think that they're headed to hell."

"But I am! And I'm not a champion."

Twist touched her arm gently, "Then maybe that's something you could work on."

Faith frowned and asked "So how's this supposed to work? I just have be happy all the time?"

Twist rolled his eyes, "No. If it was like that, you could just chemically induce happiness and viola. Heaven for everyone."

"So how's it work?"

"You're after more than temporary physical happiness. Think about it like this. If you died right now, how would you feel about the people around you? What memories would you have of your life? Particularly would you be proud for the choices you made?"

"No. I always think about myself."

Twist shrugged, "That's not always a bad thing. After all, you're the one who chooses your afterlife."

Faith gave him a weird look and Twist explained "What? You thought some bigwig spends all day working out who goes where? Hardly. You decide. It's all part and parcel of a soul."

Faith nodded as she grasped this concept then smirked "And you said you're not the person to go to about religion. You seem pretty cluey about all this."

"This isn't religion." Twist chuckled, "It's just a few things I've picked up here and there. I would take it all with a grain of salt."

"So what do I do now?" Faith asked helplessly.

"If you take my advice, stop killing yourself over it and just try to be a better person."

"It's not that simple." Faith said with a scowl.

"It is that simple. I didn't say it would be easy, did I?" Twist chuckled, "But hey, if the Devil can find redemption, I'm sure you can too."

Faith blinked, "Huh?"

Twist smiled warmly back at her confusion and jokingly said "I said I didn't say it would be easy."

"No. You said the Devil found redemption?"

Twist nodded, still smiling, "It was always there waiting for when he was ready for it, just like you."

Faith thought about this and said "But I thought he was sent to hell."

Twist chuckled, "Not sent, the loser actually wanted to go there. I guess it's just like jail. It's only hell if you don't want to be there."

Faith squinted her eyes, "But wouldn't it still be hell regardless? I mean, it'd be all fire and brimstone still."

Twist rolled his eyes, "The fire and brimstone part is a common misperception. It was an image created by the church in the fourteenth century or so to scare the peasants. Besides, fire wouldn't hurt Lucifer. The guy was fireproof."

"But how could he, you know, find redemption and stuff? Wasn't he like the most evil person ever to exist?"

"I don't know about being the most evil but he was definitely the most successful at being evil. And how did he do it? I think it had something to do with finally admitting that he loved God more than anything else. That's what really twisted him up inside. God made humanity and he thought he was being replaced as her favorite. What Lucifer didn't realize was he was the inspiration behind humanity. You were made in his image."

Faith blinked, "But I thought we were made in God's image. The bible is pretty clear on that."

Twist grinned wickedly, "It's just semantics. God is everywhere and everything, aren't they? Well then, Lucifer is PART of God, isn't he? At the time, their most loved part too."

Faith frowned and Twist laughed, slapped her on the shoulder and said "But hey, what do I know? It would explain a few things though, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess." Faith said skeptically.

"How about a dance now?"

Faith shrugged, "Sure."

"That's the spirit." Twist said, hooking his arm in hers as they walked off towards the ballroom.

Faith looked down at his arm and decided it wasn't all that bad walking hand in hand. She hadn't done it in a while.

"So Lucifer was God's most loved part ey?" Faith asked.

Twist nodded, "So the love story goes."

"You're saying the Devil was getting it up the ass from God?" Faith laughed.

"I doubt that somehow." Twist said with a smirk, "But now that you've got me thinking of it, I can't stop."

"So, have you ever met God?"

"Personally? I don't think so. And you understand the difference between love and sex, don't you?"

Faith chuckled, "This coming from a whore?"

"Damn right. The more you whore, the bigger distinction there is from love and sex, let me tell you."

Faith shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm pretty sure my landlord loved me when I last paid the rent."

Twist smirked, "I'm sure you loved him long time."

"I'm not sure about the pizza boy though. I think I terrorized him."

Twist chuckled, "Are you trying to shock me?"

Faith pouted, "Oh yeah. You probably invented the oldest occupation."

"You just keep that secret to yourself."

OXOXOX

Some time after a dance, Faith and Twist both arrived at Xander and Anya's apartment in the hills which overlooked Sunnydale.

There was a meeting of the minds going on. His parents were mingling. Xander and Anya were playing referee.

Twist and Faith walked in to the room and Xander spotted them.

"Hey Faith. Twist." Xander said, slightly strained, "What can I do you for?"

Faith coughed uncomfortably and said just as strained "I wanted to know if there was, uh, something I could, um, do to, you know, help."

Xander raised a brow, skeptically and asked "You want to help?"

"Yeah. I wanted to help." Faith said with a smile then turned to Twist and whispered "This is stupid."

Twist hemmed and wrapped her hands around Faith back as if supporting her and said "Yes. She wants to help."

Xander frowned then said dismissively, "Why don't you check on Buffy and Willow? They might need help with their dresses. They're in there."

Faith grinned and nodded, "Sure. I'll go do that. I'll go help."

Xander gave her a weird look and turned back in time to see his own father scoping out Faith's ass. At least his dad didn't say anything inappropriate this time this time like he did with Tara. Xander wasn't sure which Tara was more shocked at, the coarse language or the fact that a man would take the time to look at her at all. That girl seriously needs some more confidence.

"This is so stupid." Faith hissed to Twist again, "How is helping with someone's dress supposed to help me?"

Twist rolled his eyes, "It's just a little social interaction. Is this really that hard for you?"

Faith scowled at him but said nothing.

"Oh, it is, huh? Well, if it's any consolation, it should get easier with practice."

Twist and Faith walked into the room Xander pointed to earlier and Twist said "Or maybe not."

Buffy and Willow's eyes shot wide open and they tried to cover themselves with their hands but they just didn't have enough hands to hide their shame.

"Don't you knock!" Buffy cried.

Faith laughed out loud, "Oh god. Those are your dresses?"

The two bridesmaids were wearing shiny greenish teal dresses, overflowing with pastel green ruffles on the sleeves and down the sides. They each also had an overly large bright green flower set in the center, over their heart.

"Anya chose them." said Willow, looking slightly green herself, "I swear, it must be a demon thing."

Twist shook his head, "I would've gone with blood larvae but you know me, always up for a bit of flesh. I guess Anya didn't go for that because she didn't want to embarrass you two."

Willow nodded, "I would definitely be embarrassed wearing a larvae. Um, do they hang around your neck on a string or is it some kind of leech that attaches itself?"

Twist groaned and ground his open palm into his face, "You've never even seen blood larvae, have you?"

"No." Buffy chuckled, "But if I did, I'd probably slay it."

"Forget it." Twist said, rolling his eyes and then muttering under his breath "Barbarians."

Faith gave Twist a weird look then address the two Scoobies, "So hey, Xander said come in here and help. Uh, so what do you need?"

"Umm." Buffy said dumbly as she and Willow gave her blank stares, "We don't really need anything. We've already fitted the dresses."

Faith deflated, "Okay. So uh, this is awkward."

Behind Faith, Twist was giving the other two girls in the room a "go on" motion with his hands. They both gave him weird looks and Buffy guessed he wanted them to keep going on with something, possibly talking.

"So hey, Faith. You're good with clothes, aren't you?" Buffy asked, not really believing she just said that, "What's your opinion about my bridesmaid dress? Does it make my bum look too big?"

Faith chuckled wickedly, "Buffy, you never have to worry about your bum looking big. You don't have a bum to be big. So don't worry, you look delicious. Kinda mint flavoured."

Trying to inject some humor into the conversation, Twist said "Hey, you know what this reminds me of, that old poem. Married in pearl, live in a whirl. Um, what was green again? Oh that's right. Married in green, ashamed to be seen. Hmm. I guess it's not that funny."

"But strangely applicable." Buffy admitted, looking at her horrible dress in the mirror again.

The room turned quiet again and Twist nudged Faith. Faith gave him another weird look and asked "What?"

"You remember what we were talking about on the way here?" Twist asked, trying to remind her.

"Oh, right." Faith said, nodding slowly, "Yeah. I guess I should."

"You should what?" Buffy asked skeptically.

Faith straightened herself up a little and said "Umm. Buffy, you know we don't really get along, right?"

"That would probably have something to do with you killing people and poisoning her boyfriend and trying to kill her." Willow reminded Faith, "It's surprising how people react to that."

Faith clenched her fists slightly at the interruption but tried to ignore it and continued, "I know I've been a real bitch at times-"

"Like whenever you're not sleeping." Willow chuckled.

"Dammit! Shut up Red before I knock your block off!" Faith yelled at Willow.

"You would knock my block off!" Willow asked, getting in Faith's face, "Go ahead. Swing away, murderer. Hurt me, I dare you. Go on, do it! Just a little bit."

Faith clenched up and reminded herself that she could snap the witches neck before anyone could stop her. She could probably even kill Buffy too. Buffy would be too shocked to do anything, it would give her an opening.

"You know what, Willow?" Faith asked eerily cold, "I'm going to take my time killing you."

Then she turned around and stormed out of the room, pushing the door off its hinges as she went.

Once Faith was out the front door, Twist relaxed, "That could've gone better."

"What was she going to say?" Buffy asked Twist, "Because by the look of it, she was going to say she was sorry for .. everything. Being evil, killing those two men, wearing illegal amounts of black and even invading Poland."

Twist smirked, "Baby steps first, Buffy. I just got to accept that there were some things that she really should thank you for, such as taking care for her when she was in a coma. And she would have thanked you too if it wasn't for Willow."

"Yeah, what were you thinking?" Buffy asked Willow.

Willow looked dumbstruck, "Me! What! We're talking about Faith here, the biggest ingrate we know. You really think she would thank you for anything and mean it?"

Buffy frowned, "I.. I don't know. I don't know if I could believe her. Umm, hang on. Twist? What are you doing with Faith?"

"Don't tell Faith this but Dawn asked me to help rehabilitate Faith. And yes, I know I'm no pillar of society and the irony isn't lost on me."

"I think Faith might be allergic to self improvement." Willow told him, "Just watch, she'll break out in hives."

"Do you think she can be?" Buffy asked Twist, "Rehabilitated?"

Twist shrugged with a sad look, "Dawn thinks so. Or maybe it's just important to her. You know what I mean, don't you Buffy?"

Buffy nodded glumly, "Yeah. I know what you mean."

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	2. Heart breaker

OXOXOX

Chase mansion, later at night.

Anya's hen party was being held in the ballroom. There was some light pop music playing and some women were getting familiar on the dance floor.

Almost all of the female Scoobies were at one table. There was also Halfrek at the table, one of Anya's old vengeance demon colleagues.

Almost all of them were looking at the dance floor where Faith and Tara were dancing.

Faith was dancing like a predator, grinding up the blonde and going down on her. Tara was blushing and giggling like a schoolgirl, obviously enjoying it, knowing what Faith was trying to do but unable to stop the Slayer's effect on her. To Tara's merit, she kept dancing although at a large disadvantage to her dancing partner.

The other Scoobies watched on with mixtures of amusement and some with more than a little arousal. Buffy squeamishly noticed that the most effected Scooby at the table was Dawn. She was unashamedly nuzzling into Kennedy's neck.

To Buffy, it seemed that Dawn had made a complete personality shift after her night with Faith. She asked Twist about it and he explained that Tell suppressed his sexuality because he thought it made him act too much like their father. When she expressed her concerns about Dawn being gay when she wasn't before, Twist explained that Echoes actually feed off the arousal in those around them, so for the most part it doesn't matter what their partner is.

This came as a relief for Willow, who was feeling a bit guilty, thinking that maybe she had been role models for Dawn and they somehow turned her gay. She couldn't really say she was happy about this. Kennedy and Dawn just didn't seem click the same way Willow and Tara did. They lacked the same warmth the witches shared. To Buffy, it looked like they weren't in love, just in lust.

As Faith and Tara came back to the table from their dance, Kennedy spotted Buffy looking their way and smiled at her and said, "Dawn, let's keep take it down a notch. We've got guests, remember?"

Dawn slowly extracted her mouth from Kennedy's neck and bit down on her bottom lip in frustration. Seeing that Dawn was disappointed, Kennedy stroked her hair and then started whispering something in her ear that made her smile again.

"This party sucks." Faith said grumpily as she sat down, "Buffy, if I ever get married, you won't be my maid of honor. You don't know what a real hen's party is."

Buffy chuckled at the idle threat. Faith getting married was strangely hilarious.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, still chuckling as she moved on from trying to picture Faith in a wedding dress and tried to picture her potential groom instead, "We've got chip, dip and music. What else would you want?"

Faith rolled her eyes and then all of a sudden, Harmony choked on her drink and Anya patted her back.

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Harmony coughed.

Kennedy stopped whispering in Dawn's ear and asked out loud, "You heard that?"

Harmony nodded and Halfrek said "I did too. Justice demons are remarkably good listeners Those simulacrum sure are fun, aren't they?"

"Simulacrum?" Anya asked in confusion.

"Remember in Florence, that widow we met from Yth'ela or somewhere like that." Halfrek asked, trying to jog Anya's memory.

"Oh yes. I remember now." Anya said, smiling at the pleasant memory then tilted her head at Kennedy, "Hold on. Where would you get one of those from?"

"Bottie brought one for Kennedy." Faith supplied and wrapped her arm around Tara and added "And one for the two witches here."

"For the record, I don't want to know what it is you're talking about." Buffy said sternly and Harmony nodded in agreement and put her hands over her ears.

"It's crazy fun." Faith chuckled, "They're magical detachable dicks. It feels totally authentic when you're plugging another girl. I'm not kidding."

Harmony groaned and dropped her hands off her ears and said "Stupid super vampire hearing."

Buffy and Harmony both grimaced with disgust. Faith pretended not to notice and smiled meanly at Tara, asking "So the question that I'm sure on everyone's minds is, who really wears the pants? Come on, T. You been dipping into the strawberry patch?"

"Faith." Dawn growled as Tara shrunk in on herself, "That's a little personal."

Willow was almost similarly struck but managed to say "W-we share."

Faith grinned and nodded, "Nice. So how about you, Kenny? You the catcher or the pitcher?"

Kennedy, who almost never showed embarrassment, was a little hesitant to reply but she did proudly, saying "Dawn likes to play the girl."

Dawn tittered and said "That's right. Kenny's my boyfriend."

Faith smirked at Kennedy, "Lucky girl. Dawn's a nice fit, aint she?"

Kennedy nodded a little redder than usual, "That she is."

Buffy groaned, "Faith. Why do I even keep you around?"

Faith chuckled, "Come on, B. What would you do without me to liven up your life?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the other Slayer, "Liven up my life? So that's what you've been doing all this time?"

"Darn tootin'." Faith said, hitting the table lightly then looked to Halfrek, "Hey, it's Halfrek, right? Could I talk to you for a moment? You know, about girl stuff."

Halfrek smiled pleasantly, "Sure. But please, call me Hallie. Everyone does."

Halfrek followed Faith's lead from the table, out into the hallway.

"Say, what's going on between you and Buffy?" Halfrek asked, "I'm just sensing a lot a resentment. Do you want to talk about it?"

Faith chuckled, "Not gonna happen, Hallie. I know all about vengeance demons."

Halfrek frowned, "And you don't want my help to extract your vengeance. You're very hands on, aren't you?"

Faith smirked, "Yeah. Hands on. That sounds like me."

Halfrek slumped in disappointment, "Can't blame a girl for trying. So, why else would you want to pull me aside?"

"It's this party. It sucks."

Halfrek nodded in agreement, "It is lacking a certain something. So what are you suggesting?"

"We had all the men and kiddies leave the mansion for the night, so why not go all the way? Make this a party no one will forget."

Halfrek smiled, "And you thought I might be able to help?"

"You seem pretty onto it. Maybe you might know a few underground contacts to liven this place up?"

Halfrek's smile twisted open into a toothy grin, "Wish granted."

OXOXOX

Town hall.

"Have you thought about what you're doing, man?" Giles asked, putting on a good show of exasperation, "The ramifications could be cataclysmic."

Everyone around the table gave him a weird look.

"Well, I haven't given a grave warning recently and I thought it was about time I had." Giles chuckled.

"Xander, I can understand." said Spike, "But Anya, what was she thinking marrying this lummox?"

"Hey, I'll have you know that my son is the MAYOR of this town." Xander's perpetually intoxicated father said for the sixtieth time that day.

Xander, Giles, Spike, Twist and Xander's father were sitting around a table in town hall, playing cards. The rest of the bachelor party were in the other room singing Karaoke.

Xander, Giles and Twist were insulating the other guests from Xander's father. Lying on the grenade as it were, although it was the lesser of two evils for Xander. He was still having nightmares about demon karaoke since Buffy told him about a club in LA which catered to that perverse pastime. Why Spike was there was anyone's guess since apparently he loved Karaoke and all that it entailed. Xander couldn't fathom Twist's stance on the most wretched of all imitations but Giles was looking forward to it until he heard one of Xander's distant uncles singing "I will survive."

"I guess she's just easy." Spike mused to himself and at Xander's cross look he added, "Oh don't get me wrong. Convenience is underrated. Just look at Harmony."

"Excuse me?" Giles asked, offended.

Spike smirked at the watcher, "Oh please, Rupert. I used to date the bimbo. I know what she's like. She's the epitome of ease. It's nice and comfortable, isn't it?"

"She's not that easy." Giles defended his girl toy, "I distinctly remember her cleaning your clock when you tried to get fresh with her just a few months ago."

"Over reaction." Spike shrugged, "I was just curious if there was a change. You know, after her recent changes. A physical change."

Xander chortled, "By the shiner she gave you, I guess there was."

Giles smirked and Spike shot back with "Don't look at me like that, I know you're only thinking of Buffy when you're with Harmony. Hey, I know was."

Xander grimaced, "Spike. I didn't want to know that. That is disturbing me on so many levels. I think you just destroyed my childhood."

"Buffy." Xander's dad mumbled, "Isn't that the cute little blonde? The one with the nose. Alexander, you should'a married her instead. She looks like a goer."

Xander groaned, "Dad. Don't try to remember their names."

Spike chuckled, "Yeah, that's right. She's a goer alright."

"You wouldn't know that." Twist told Spike with a smirk, "Unless you've been watching her with her boyfriend. Oh Spike, you haven't been?"

Xander and Giles looked at Spike.

Spike hemmed and said "It's not what you think. I was walking by the house one time and there they were in the lounge room. Who has sex in the lounge room? With the windows open? But I didn't stay for the show. Once I realised she was previously engaged, I moved on."

Xander smirked, "I'm sure you did."

"Hey, I did. Don't care if you don't believe me, it's the truth. But hey, I bet everyone at this table wouldn't mind a piece of her, am I right, Twist?"

Twist smiled ever so slightly, "She is quite remarkable, isn't she?"

Xander blinked at Twist, "Whoa. Wait. YOU like Buffy?"

Twist raised an eyebrow at him, "What's so strange about that?"

"You're.. You're you." Xander explained.

"And you're you also." Twist replied, "And yet you lust after her too."

Xander shook his head, "I don't lust after anyone except my bride to be."

Twist chuckled, "Oh but you do. You're just suppressing it. You should be more like Anya. She doesn't suppress her feelings, she just doesn't always act on them. Simply suppressing your emotions like that isn't healthy. It's bad for your heart and joints."

Xander frowned, "Well, she is always looking at other men. She wouldn't cheat though. It's not in her. One card."

Spike snorted, "Can you blame her? Not the cheating part but the looking part. Gimme three."

"One." said Giles while the father stayed his hand.

Twist took their cards up and tossed out fives new ones while the others tossed some chips into the middle of the table.

"Call it." Twist told the table.

"Two pair." Xander said, dropping his cards.

"Two pair with kings." said his father.

"Nothing." was both Spike and Giles reply.

"And I've got two pair with kings with spades. I win again." Twist said with a grin, taking the cards and pulling the chips onto his pile which was considerably bigger than the others.

The demon dished out more cards and everyone anteed up.

"You know, I'm only here because I thought there would be dancing girls." said Spike.

"Dancing girls?" Xander asked skeptically.

"Well, this is supposed to be a bloody bachelor party, isn't it?" asked Spike, "And it's the best man's duty to get dancing girls but Xander, being the idiot he is, he's not using a best man. He's using a best girl."

"Hey. She IS my best friend. Who would you have gotten in my place? The chief of police? Oh wait, she's a girl too. About the only guy I would ever consider is Giles. But he isn't so much a friend as the father I never had."

"You know, I'm sitting right here." Xander's father said.

"You get what I mean, Dad." Xander said dismissively, "And it'd be a good day in hell when you're my best man, Spike."

Everyone around the table called for new cards and Twist started dishing them out.

Spike sneered at Xander, "At least I would've gotten you some strippers."

Xander deadpanned at Spike then chuckled, "Really?"

Spike thought about it, "Yeah. You know what, I really would have. Ahha! Full house. Beat that you tossers."

"Four of a kind, sixes." said Twist and everyone tossed their cards at him.

Xander's Father scratched his scalp and asked "Has anyone noticed how the kid keeps getting better hands than us? Not a lot better, just slightly better?"

Spike rolled his eyes, "In case you haven't noticed, he's cheating. I've been watching him all night and I still can't figure out how."

Xander blinked, not really keeping track of the game, "He is?"

Giles nodded, "And it's not just card counting either."

During this, Twist just raised an eyebrow until Xander directly asked him "Are you cheating?"

"Would I tell you if I was?" was Twists reply, "Don't worry. I'm sure I'll lose the next round. I've got a feeling you'll get a really good hand."

Twist tossed out five more cards to each of them at the table and they picked them up.

Xander smiled, "Hey, I did get a really good hand… Oh crap. Maybe we should've played monopoly."

Spike chuckled, "But you're piss poor at that and I bet my hand's better than yours."

Giles frowned as he looked at his hand then looked up at Xander and asked "How can you be bad at monopoly? It's a game of chance."

Twist looked up from his cards and asked "That's that game with dice, isn't it? Where you buy property and the like?"

Giles nodded and Twist smirked, "Yeah. I'm great at that game. It would be a lot more fun only it was played with real money or actual real estate. Although, I have already owned property on Northumberland avenue. It was a quaint little lounge bar with a very worthwhile ale."

Giles blinked, "You owned a bar on Northumberland?"

Twist nodded easily, "Once upon a time. I eventually gave it away to a detective fellow as a gift."

Giles looked across the table to Spike, who had a similarly surprised look on his face.

Xander noticed this interaction and asked "What is it guys?"

"I think he's talking about the Sherlock Holmes." Spike said, "You knew Sherlock Holmes?"

Twist snorted, "Sherlock Holmes never existed. No, I knew Connor Doyle. He helped me with a little pet problem… in Baskerville."

Everyone except Xander's father stopped looking at their cards and tried to figure out if Twist was telling the truth or not.

"I'm taking three this time." Twist said, putting down three cards, prompting the others to turn back to the game.

"One." Xander's father ordered.

"None." Xander said with a sigh.

"None." was both Spike and Gile's call, all withholding cards.

Twist slipped the taken card into the bottom of the pack with everyone looking at him.

"I don't suppose anyone knows about the history of cards, do they?" Twist asked and when no one answered him he went on, giving out a new card to Xander's father as he spoke, "The current set of suits we're using represent different parts of life. The diamonds represent the rich, The spades represent the workers, the hearts represent lovers while the clubs represent the creative aspects of life the arts and the dawn of new experiences. Now, the reason why the spades are often high is that the hard workers in life deserve to be respected."

"Damn right." Xander's Father said, slapping down his card, "And I've got nothing."

Twist smirked at Xander's Father and looked to Giles.

Giles frowned and put down his cards, "I've got a royal straight flush in spades."

Then Twist turned to Spike, "And the hearts are in second place because the lovers of world need more to support the family to come."

Spike sneered and put down his cards, "Royal bloody straight flush in hearts, pantywaist poofter."

Then Twist turned to Xander and continued his little speech, "And the clubs which represent the beginning of new experiences comes third because they have so much to look forward too. They just feel on top of the world, so who cares if they come last in a silly game of poker, don't you agree, Xander?"

Xander was frowned, "And I've got a royal straight flush in clubs."

Twist smiled gleefully, "And I've got a royal straight flush in diamonds which represent the rich and powerful. They come last because they can afford to lose at cards. I mean really, it's not like it matters to me, is it?"

Xander yawned, "There is such a thing as showing off too much."

"Okay, now fess up, you twat." Spike spat at Twist, "How are you doing it?"

"Oh, it's quite simple really. You see I'm.."

Twist stopped talking suddenly and looked down at his side. After a few seconds he pulled a pager from off his belt and read it under the light of the over hanging lamp shade.

Twist frowned and said "Uh-oh. Duty calls. Guess I'll have to confess later."

Xander blinked, "What do you mean duty calls?"

"You know, I've got cough cough work." Twist said as he took his jacket coat off the back of the chair he was sitting in. No one really wanted to ask any more details about his work so they no one asked.

Once Twist was out of the room, Xander's father asked "Xander, what do you know about that boy? You've got to ask yourself what sort of person would answer a pager at this time of the night. I tell you, he's a drug dealer."

Xander shook his head, "He's not a drug dealer, Dad."

"He's an invasive biologist." Spike said as he nicked the pack of cards before Giles got any ideas.

Xander's father squinted at the vampire, asking "Is that some sort of doctor?"

"Something like that, yeah." Spike chuckled, "It's very unconventional medicine but I'm sure he's got the cure for what ails you."

Xander gagged at that thought, "Spike. Shut the hell up."

Spike kept chuckling, "But it's true. I'm sure just last night, Giles performed some invasive biology on Harmony and he's a better man for it. Or at least a happier one, if not a better one. What do you think about all this, whelp? Giles and Harmony? It's not natural."

Xander frowned as he found himself agreeing with Spike, "Spike is .. sort of .. right. Take it from some who's walked down the road of demony love. It's one full of girls who want to eat your head. And are you going to give out those cards any time soon, Spike?"

Spike ignored Xander, intent with sniffing the pack of cards as he searched for markings.

Giles wasn't impressed at Xander, replying "Aren't you going to marry Anya tomorrow?"

"That's ex-demony love." Xander corrected Giles, "It's a big difference."

Xander's father frowned but didn't say anything.

Spike looked up from the cards and asked "But you've never actually got any with a demon, have you? I'd be disgusted with myself by association if you did."

"Well, no. I guess not. Unless you count Anya, which I don't. But I did get pretty close to Drusilla this one time."

"Oi! Leave it out. She was all starry eyed because of that spell."

"I can still remember those big brown hypnotic eyes." Xander said dreamily, "Mmm, yummy."

Spike stood up and looked like he wanted to hit Xander.

"You know what? I was trying to be civil and understanding and this is what happens. You rubbing my face in it. So stuff you."

And with that, he strode out of the room.

Giles and Xander watched the bleach blonde stomp off.

"Maybe he's lonely." Xander offered Giles, "He really needs someone in his life. You don't think we could go track down Drusilla and tie her to a wall for him, do you?"

Giles frowned, "No. That wouldn't be a good idea."

Xander sighed, "I guess not. But seriously now, is it really working between you and Harmony?"

"It has its hurdles but we both think so." Giles replied then chuckled, "She actually proposed to me last week."

Xander blinked, "She proposed to you?"

Giles nodded, "So that I could get a green card or so she says."

"That was very considerate of her." Xander admitted, "You know, when you consider her personality. Did you tell her how you've already been granted permanent citizenship through the SGC?"

Giles nodded, "And I said that I would think about marriage. It was a bit sudden."

"You should've just told her no." Xander's Father told Giles, "Marriage just isn't worth it."

Xander and Giles selectively ignored that outburst. The bitter alcoholic had been spewing helpful tips like that for the past three days which prompted Willow to declare him the anti-marriage. She explained that when an anti-marriage particle and a marriage particle strike together, the string holding the particles together unravel and explode in a brilliant but devastatingly destructive blossom of death. This view was quickly adapted by the rest of the Scoobies and thus they had kept him quarantined from the other guests from him as much as possible.

"What do you think the girls are doing now?" Giles asked, the smallest sign of worry on his face.

Xander chuckled, "I'm sure they're not doing anything too strenuous. Anya is probably talking their ears off about her glory days in the vengeance business."

"Vengeance?" asked Xander's Father.

Xander nodded without looking up at his father and said "It's a euphemism we made up for the inland revenue service."

His father gave Xander a weird look then went back to looking at his cards.

Xander frowned and looked at the empty chair which Twist was sitting in, getting a sinking feeling.

"I'm sure they're just as bored as we are." Xander told Giles but said it more to reassure himself.

OXOXOX

Chase Mansion.

Back at the Hen's party, Faith and Halfrek were getting some help with rearranging the tables back into the middle of the room while the Scoobies looked on curiously.

"I don't like this." Harmony whispered to the others at the table, "It smells like an ambush."

"Hmm. I thought it was just Aunt Megan's perfume." Buffy joked but looked on, also cautiously.

"Has anyone noticed how Faith has been acting a little differently recently?" Dawn asked the others, "I mean, she's really been acting weird."

"She's trying the whole redemption deal again." Buffy explained.

Anya snorted, "Again? How many times is it now?"

"Her fourth." said Buffy, having already counted it earlier.

"And no one thinks she'll make it this time either." Willow said snidely.

Next to her, Tara frowned and said "I think she could do it. She's not totally evil."

Willow patted Tara's hand, "Tara, you've never really met Faith without her chip. She's a lost cause."

"I wouldn't say that." Dawn said with a frown.

Willow looked at Dawn and said "Dawn, I know you like Faith but she's still doesn't feel bad about any of the stuff she's done. She killed people and it didn't phase her in the slightest."

"Yes, it did." Dawn said, slightly angry.

Willow shook her head, "No, it didn't."

"Yes, it did." Dawn growled back, "And I know this for a fact. Back when.. uh.. before that incident in LA, when I had a better grasp over my psychic powers, I read Faith's mind. Trust me, there's a lotta pain there. A lot more than you'd think."

Buffy frowned, "Really?"

Dawn nodded with a smile.

"Then if she felt pain from killing people, how come she didn't stop with the first one?" Willow challenged Dawn.

"Oh, that's easy." said Anya, "It's one of the oldest lines in the book. See, someone is sad, they do something bad to get a happy but its short lived and in the long term it makes them feel even worse so then they go do something else to get another happy but it just makes them sadder and sadder and you get the gist of it."

Willow blinked at Anya, "That makes no sense at all. That's insane."

Anya nodded, "I never said she was sane."

"What do you think they're doing?" Willow asked the others as Faith turned off the music and took the microphone hooked up into the sound system.

Anya tilted her head and guessed, "I think she got strippers."

Willow chuckled, "Hey, Anya made a funny."

"Can I have your attention, please?" Faith's voice ran over the sound system and everyone looked her way, "Now the party is really gonna kick off. So hide your wedding rings, ladies, because here comes the boys. Hallie, hit it."

Halfrek fiddled with the stereo for a bit until she got it to work and the village people's "Macho man" rang out into the ballroom. Then eight guys came out from the kitchen, all of them dressed up as one of a village people.

The eight men danced their way up onto the tables in the center of the room and the women circled around them like vultures but from below.

Seeing that it was working, Faith ran over to the scoobies to see how they liked it.

"Just consider it my wedding present." Faith said with a goofy smile, "So what do you think?"

"Umm, wow!" Anya replied, "But where did you get them from?"

"What? The guys?" Faith chuckled, "They're just some vampires that work in the chocolate plant."

The vampires on the tables had started taking off their shirts and Anya said "I never thought I'd say this but thank you, Faith. It seems that maybe you are part of some greater design. Oh wow. Check out those washboard abs."

With that, Anya left with Harmony on her tail.

Dawn bit down on the rings in her bottom lip and gave Kennedy her best puppy dog eyes. Kennedy caved in with a smile, "Fine. Go ogle the boys."

Dawn giggled and ran off towards the strippers.

Faith smirked at Buffy, "See Buffy, now this is how you party."

Buffy shrugged, "Maybe you're right. I just - Omigod!"

Faith tracked the path of Buffy's petrified stare to where she saw Joyce up on one of the tables and dancing with one of the vampires.

Faith burst out in laughter, "Oh man! Check out Miss S. The girl's still got the moves."

Buffy cupped her hands over the sides of her eyes, giving herself tunnel vision and she groan, "That's it. I am NOT seeing my mom dancing like THAT. My childhood has already been shattered enough today."

"Aww, B." Faith whined as the blonde Slayer walked off and left the party.

Once Buffy had left, Faith slumped down at the table which held the three designated lesbians of the Scooby gang.

After a moment of contemplation, she smirked, "Hey guys. I'm sorry. I didn't think about you. How about we go up to the champagne room and Kennedy and me give you a private show?"

Kennedy seemed eager but Willow and Tara just stared like deers in headlights.

OXOXOX

In the hallway, Buffy paused for a moment to remember exactly where her room for the night was when she heard a familiar voice.

"Leaving the party early?" Twist asked, "That's not like you, Buffy."

Buffy spun around and found Twist leaning against a wall, with a smug yet suave grin on his face.

"Twist! What are you doing here?" Buffy hissed, "It's ladies only tonight."

Twist laughed, in the same artificial way which Cordelia used to, "Oh, you couldn't tell? I'm part of the entertainment."

"What do you mean you're – Oh!"

Twist walked up to Buffy, shamelessly undressing her with his eyes.

Buffy backed off and held a hand out, "Whoa there! I don't know what you're thinking but it's not going to happen."

"Oh but it might. You see, I was hired with the flimsiest of instructions. All I'm supposed to do is make sure that tonight is a night which everyone will remember."

Buffy shook her head, "I don't think so."

Twist pouted, "Aww. Are you going to be difficult?"

Buffy glared at him, "Yes, if you're going to force yourself on me."

Twist sighed and took Buffy's hand, "Buffy, I don't force myself on people."

Buffy yanked her hand away and turned around, "Fine then. Goodnight."

Twist quickly walked up beside her and followed her with a smile.

Buffy glared at him, "What's your malfunction? Don't take a hint? I'm not interested in having sex with you tonight."

"Then we won't have sex." Twist said with a grin.

"Then why are you following me?" Buffy asked, "And no, we're not kissing or doing anything like that either."

"I get that."

"So…?" Buffy said as she opened the door and stood in the doorway, stopping Twist from entering.

"Buffy, I would like to think that in the short time we've spent together, we've grown a certain amount of respect and trust for one another. Don't you trust me?"

"It's not that-"

"You think I'm going to try to rape you or something?" Twist asked with a chuckle, "Buffy, you're a Slayer and I'm, well, NOT. It's not really feasible."

"No, I know you wouldn't try that. It's just, um.."

"I'll tell you what. Let me into your room for one minute and after that time, if you want me to leave then I'll leave without a word."

Buffy frowned and moved aside for Twist to enter.

When he did, Buffy closed the door and Twist said "Now get on the bed."

Buffy blinked at him.

"And take your shoes and socks off too."

Buffy blinked at him, "What?"

"I look at you and I see a woman who is in desperate need of a foot rub and she doesn't even know it. So, shoes off."

"You can't-"

"I will brook no argument. Shoes off."

"But-"

"Shoes off."

"I need to-"

"Shoes off."

Buffy groaned and started throwing her shoes off, "Fine. My shoes are off. Happy? Now what?"

"Now sit back and close your eyes." Twist said from where he was sitting at the base of the bed and rubbing his hands together as if he was trying to start a fire.

When Twist put his hands on the soles of her feet, they were hot and Buffy gasped out at the unexpected heat and then at the unexpected pain.

"AAh, Ow! ow! owowaaah.. oh.. oh wow.. that's.. oh god."

By now, Buffy's eyes had rolled back under her eyelids and she was drowning in a soft, comfortable pleasure.

"You're really tense." Twist said, finding it hard to work against her small but super powered feet, "Just relax and let all that tension out."

Buffy found that she didn't need to try, all her tension just seeped out through her feet as he massaged them. She felt something wet on her face and realised it was tears.

"I'm crying?" Buffy mumbled.

"It's a natural reaction." Twist said soothingly, "Don't let it worry you."

"Twist." Buffy said weakly.

"Yes, Buffy?" Twist asked, tirelessly working on her feet.

"This feels so good I feel like I'm cheating on my boyfriend."

Twist raised an eyebrow but didn't stop his ministrations, "I didn't know you had boyfriend."

"I don't." Buffy chuckled and frowned. She felt so weak, something inside her wanted to rage against this treatment. She felt that this would make her weak and vulnerable but it was just a small part of her and it was outvoted by the most of her. The most of her wanted to keep hold of this feeling, a feeling she hadn't felt in years.

Safe.

"Twist." Buffy called again.

"Yes, Buffy?"

"Can we do this later? I mean don't stop but can we do it again, later?"

"Sure Buffy. But don't worry about anything. Just relax, okay?"

"Okay." Buffy said as slowly drifted into a silent, dreamless state of sleep.

Twist kept up the hard work but after a while, he whispered out to her, "Buffy?"

When he got no response, he stopped working and took his hands off her feet.

"Buffy? Are you awake?"

Seeing that she wasn't, Twist tilted his head to the side, "Wow. You really let that tension go, didn't you?"

Seeing little point to continuing, Twist slowly moved up to Buffy and unhooked her belt then gently slid off her pants. Then he unbuttoned her shirt and slid it up and off her. Buffy was still asleep after that and Twist paused to take in her half naked beauty.

Twist clenched his eyes shut and shook his head, telling himself not to think too much about this situation. With slightly more resolve, he covered Buffy with the sheets and tucked her in.

After that he left the room, closing the door quietly behind and then let out a gasp he didn't know he was holding in.

"Twist, you idiot." Twist berated himself as he hit his head against the wall, "You've got to get your head straight. What did you think you were going to do?"

"I was pondering the same thing." said a voice behind Twist.

Twist spun around in time for Spike to lift the little demon off the ground by his throat.

"Spike." Twist rasped, "What are you doing here?"

"Just keeping tabs on you." Spike replied, "So you're after Buffy, huh? No point in trying, she's way out of your league."

"And you're not?" Twist asked, "Don't look so surprised. You're just way too helpful for a vampire, even for a vampire who can't hurt humans. If the locals only thought about it for a few seconds they would've seen it too. You've got it bad for Buffy."

"I'm going to say this once and one time only. Stay away from her."

"Or what? Face it, you're outmatched in this." Twist said as he was still being half-strangled by the vampire.

"Outmatched?" Spike chuckled, "All I see is a pimply faced snot-gobbler who thinks he's a big shot."

"And all I see is a dead guy who's angry because no one likes his poetry."

Spike gasped and almost beat the living daylights out of Twist right there. The only thing stopping him was that they were right outside Buffy's room. If he started beating up Twist, Buffy would wake up and find them. He knew Buffy would believe Twist over him and that was why he wasn't ripping the demon's head off with his bare hands.

Spike smirked and started walking down the hall, still holding Twist off the ground.

"We're going to go for a little walk, you and I." Spike said as two ladies came out into the hallway in front of him.

"Oh, more men?" One of them asked, "You two aren't strippers, are you? You're one of the, teehee, others?"

"Yes, we are." Twist said as Spike lowered him down to the ground so the women wouldn't think anything too violent is going on.

Spike looked at Twist, "I'm not a whore like you."

"You are tonight, Spikey." Twist said and Spike tilted his head as Twist's eyes turned into two completely red balls.

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	3. Small packages

OXOXOX

The morning after.

The next thing Spike knew he was in his bed, under the sheets, naked and totally confused. Twist was looking down at him, all smiles and sunshine.

"Huh? What happened?" Spike asked himself and then the prior night's activities flooded back into his head, shocking him to his core. He looked across the bed to find Joyce, the Slayer's mother, sleeping next to him.

"Oh bloody hell." he whined, "I feel so violated."

"Good morning to you too." Twist said congenially, "It looks like you're in a spot of bother. What do you think the Slayer would do to you if she found out you just boinked her mom?"

"How did you do .. that?" Spike asked, "Mind control? You can control people's minds?"

"It's more like removing your inhibitions. I can't do it to everyone. Vampires tend to be easy though. Not a lot of inhibitions to begin with."

Spike reached out under the sheets and curled his arm under the bed to where he remembered stashing them. Instead he found nothing.

"Where are my clothes?" Spike asked Twist with a glare.

"Ssh." Twist whispered, looking over at Joyce, "You don't want to wake you know who."

"Where are my clothes?" Spike hissed.

"What's the hurry?" Twist chuckled, "I thought we could stay here a while, maybe get to know each other a bit more."

Spike squinted at Twist, "Oh, you can't be serious."

"Why not? You're quite an attractive man and it's not like you never bent over for, who was it again? Some guy called Angelus?"

Spike groaned once again and covered his head with the pillow. Last night, he distinctly remembered supplying Twist with around two hundred years of material to blackmail himself. Once he started talking, all his pain and misery just poured out. Looking back at it, it was a relief. Of course, now he had to dispose of Twist.

"If you're shy, we could turn out the lights." Twist said, finding this all very amusing.

"I can see in the dark, you ponce." said Spike and covered his head with the pillow, not wanting to talk to the demon anymore.

Twist lifted the pillow so Spike could see his smiling face and he said "Your clothes are in the dresser. Joyce's are on the dresser. We've only got a few hours until the wedding starts so try to wake Joyce up some time before that, okay?"

Spike glared at Twist and was truly thankful when the little miscreant turned on his heel and walked out of the room. His thankfulness was short lived however as he could feel Joyce waking up behind him.

He turned around to face her and she brushed the hair away from her face and smiled at him.

"How long I did I sleep?" Joyce asked.

"We've still got time until the ceremony."

Joyce relaxed, "Oh good. Enough time for more?"

Spike frowned in thought. Now he knew that he was coerced into this but what about Joyce? By the wicked grin on her face, he guessed she wasn't.

"Umm. Yeah. I guess so."

Joyce frowned, "You're not regretting what happened?"

Spike snorted dismissively, "No. Not at all. It was great. You were great."

"So why are you giving me that look?"

"Just a little hung over." Spike said as he pulled her closer, "But I'm up for some if you are."

"Mmm-hmm." Joyce giggled as she eased Spike into her.

Spike and Joyce stared into each others eyes for a few beats as they both got comfortable before stepping up the pace.

Joyce wasn't what Spike was looking for but he had to admit she was one hell of a woman and he might as well take advantage of the situation.

OXOXOX

Willow was sleeping a peacefully next to Tara when a slight vibration buzzed through her body. At first she tried to ignore it but found that it wasn't that bad. It was quite nice actually. Unwanted but nice.

Then she felt a slight lurching in her stomach as she was put in motion.

Where was she? On a plane? She could hear a quiet whir of a motor and someone tittering.

She opened her eyes to find the walls in the room moving around her. She blinked her eyes in confusion until she spotted Dawn with a control panel in her hands.

"You know, I didn't buy that bed to sleep in." Dawn told Willow, turning off the bed.

Willow mumbled something unintelligible then remembered that she and Tara had spent the night on the purple vibrating, rotating bed in Faith's room.

"Morning, Dawn." Tara said from behind Willow, "Hey, you look nice."

"Thanks." Dawn beamed a smile without any of the usual metal on her face, "I wanted to look presentable for Xander's big day."

Willow blinked at Dawn and realized Dawn had removed all her lip rings and studs. She wasn't wearing her usual garish make up and had dyed her hair back to it's natural brown. During the night, Dawn had gotten her hair permed wavy and it actually looked even shinier than normal, if that could be believed. She must have gone crazy on hair products. She even looked nice in the horror of the green bridesmaid dress she was wearing.

"You took out your rings." Willow said, surprised, "I thought you liked them."

Dawn grinned a thousand watt smile, looking like her old self for a change, "Oh, I do. I think I'll have a lot of fun putting them back in later. I've even got some plans for new places this time."

"Well, in the meantime, it's nice to see you au naturalle." said Willow, hinting that perhaps Dawn shouldn't change back.

Dawn thought about this, "I might stay like this for a while. Kennedy seemed to like it. When she woke up and saw me like this, she took me so hard I had to fix my make up afterwards. Say, you guys didn't see that, did you? You looked pretty out of it."

Willow and Tara both shook their heads in the negative.

"Pity. It was really hot." Dawn pouted, "So tell me, how did you enjoy last night? Kennedy's great, isn't she? And her tongue is so different, isn't it?"

Dawn showed what she meant by slowly licking her teeth, showing off of her own stud in her tongue.

Willow and Tara shook their heads again.

"It's not what you think." Willow said quickly, "We didn't do anything with Kennedy."

Dawn chuckled, "Relax. I'm okay with it. Kennedy's a slayer. In all likelihood, she won't live that long so I want her to get in all the fun she can handle while she's still with us. I really do love her but I can't hold her back, it'd be unfair."

"No. W-we really didn't." said Tara this time, "We just w-w-watched her and uh.."

"And Faith." Willow finished for the blonde.

"And Faith?" Dawn said with a raised eyebrow, "That would explain the look Faith gave me out in the kitchen."

Willow hemmed, "Umm, Dawn. I don't mean to be pushy but could we have some private time? Under these sheets, we're kinda naked."

"Oh sure. I just was just sent to make sure you're awake is all. Hey, do you guys want anything from the kitchen? Coffee? I'll bring it right up."

"Coffee wouldn't be a bad thing." Willow admitted, "Sure. Coffee. Tear?"

"Umm. Tea, if that's not too much of a problem. Please." said Tara, not very comfortable with Dawn standing there.

Dawn grinned, "Great. Tea and Coffee in say, two minutes? I could make it more if you two want to.. you know."

"Two minutes is great." said Willow, almost as uncomfortable as Tara.

"Great. Just stay right there. And after that, we'll get you two in a hot shower then all dressed up for the big day. Oh, Willow, you've still got the ring, right?"

"Umm." Willow said, trying to think about where she saw it last, "Not on me but don't worry. It's safe."

Dawn squinted at Willow for a few seconds then quickly left the room for the kitchen to get their wake-up beverages.

"That was strange." Willow said with confusion.

"Yeah." Tara agreed, "It was like she was disappointed that her girlfriend didn't cheat on her with us."

There was a few moments of uncomfortable silence between the two girls until Willow leant over and kissed Tara lightly.

"Um, Willow?" Tara said tentatively.

"Yeah?"

"Last night when we were watching Kennedy and Faith.. It got a bit strange. Would it be okay if we didn't do that again any time soon?"

Willow let out a sigh of relief, "Oh thank god. I thought you liked it."

Tara blinked, "And I thought you liked it."

"Me? Like that?" Willow asked, almost offended then she laughed, "But this is good, we both don't like the same thing."

"I guess so. So we won't be asking for any more special shows?"

"Nup." Willow said, shaking her head and Tara kissed her more purposely this time.

They both giggled and Tara said "Although, they both were really hot."

"Yeah." Willow chuckled, "It was just weird with them doing it at the same time we were. You know, confusing."

Tara nodded in agreement, "Next time we should join them."

Willow thought about this and smiled, "Sure. Next time. Hey, lets play with the bed before Dawn gets back."

Willow laid on top of Tara and turned the bed back on with the control panel that Dawn had dropped on her bed.

Tara laughed out loud, the bed making her laughter ripple with its vibrations.

OXOXOX

Later, at the wedding chapel, Xander's room for preparations.

Xander was getting ready with Willow, Kennedy and Twist in the room. Kennedy was behind Xander, helping him into his cummerbund. Spike had tried it earlier but his chip went off, which Xander found extremely funny.

"If I may be so bold, can I ask a question?" asked Kennedy as she strained with the cummerbund.

"Okay." Xander gasped back as the squishing of his internal organs pushed the air out of his lungs.

"Last year on Halloween, the party you went to got taken over by a fear demon? The Halloween before that, Buffy got attacked by green demons which had giant tongues where their heads should be? And the year before that, one of Giles old dark magic friends turned you all into what your Halloween costume was?"

Xander nodded, "Yes, that's right. Although, giant green tongue demons? I don't remember hearing about that."

"Well.. Ahh, got it!" Kennedy said triumphantly.

Xander smiled and twirled around so the world could see his cummerbund, "Good job."

"Thank you." Kennedy said with a smile, "But as I was saying, all these weird things happen on Halloween. So why are you having your WEDDING on it?"

"Oh, ye of little faith." Xander said with a smirk, "I'm killing two birds with one stone. I can guarantee that weird things will happen on Halloween and this year, it's going to be my wedding. I'm actually planning the weirdness, isn't it kooky?"

Kennedy frowned, "You're kinda insane. But at least you look handsome in your suit."

"Hey." Willow called at Kennedy.

"What?" Kennedy asked back, confused at the outburst.

"You're gay. How would you know he's handsome?" Willow challenged her.

"Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I can't appreciate a nice suit."

"Yeah, it does." Willow said, nodding her head with emphasis.

"Oh please. I've got a suit just like it." Kennedy laughed back, silencing Willow.

Xander put his hands together and clapped lightly, "And the prize to the most extravagantly gay person in the room goes to Kennedy."

Kennedy bowed, "Why thank you. If you need me, I'll be out burning the snags on the Barbie."

After Kennedy left, Xander said "What's a snag and am I the only one was scared about what she just said?"

"Not the only one." Twist admitted, "I never really understood barbeques. I've always been more of a hot plate person.

Xander looked over at the little demon and said "Okay, I'm just wondering. We don't get along that well and yet, you're here acting like my friend. Why is that?"

"Oh. I just thought I'd lend some emotional support. Maybe some advice."

"About what?" Willow asked as she started getting Xander's bow tie ready.

"About marriage." Twist replied as if it was obvious.

Willow and Xander looked at each other for a beat then laughed out loud.

"You've been married?" Xander asked, still laughing.

Twist folded his arms and sulked, "Yes! Many times, thank you very much."

Xander and Willow tried to force themselves to stop laughing but it only half worked.

"Go on, gimme some advice." Xander asked as his laughter petered out.

Twist gave him a glum look, "I don't feel in the mood now."

"Fine." said Xander and Willow went back to fixing his bowtie, finding it more trouble than it was worth.

Xander thought about something and asked Twist, "There is one thing you could tell me. When Anya summoned Halfrek, she came to our apartment ready to unleash some vengeance on me before Anya stopped her. Anyway, I saw her demon face. It was really gross."

Twist nodded sadly, "This century has not been good for her complexion. You should've seen her in the eighteenth. She was an absolute stunner. She had an inner glow."

Xander frowned at that but continued, "So you've seen Anyanka is her demon form?"

Twist nodded, "She went for the ritualistically flayed flesh look. It's not as bad as it sounds. On Anyanka, it was really quite fetching. A little fierce perhaps but nothing you could take offence at."

"So she wasn't as bad as Halfrek then?" Xander asked, just to be sure.

Twist thought about it, "From my perspective I would say Anyanka's demon form is vastly more attractive than Halfrek's desiccated skin. At least, during sex it is."

Xander held his mouth closed as he gagged, "You had sex with her like THAT?"

Twist shrugged, "Why not? Sex is like the ultimate come as you are party, so why not let the demon out to play?"

Xander sighed, "Whenever I feel I can't be disgusted by you anymore, you prove me wrong."

"So how well did you know Anya?" asked Willow.

Twist shrugged, "Not that much. We fooled around a few times. She struck me as very career orientated. I guess that hasn't changed though."

"I just can't believe she had sex with you." said Xander, still not getting over it.

"Not only but she paid for it for too." Twist said with a wide grin.

"Really?" asked Willow, "Because I can't see Anya giving away money like that. She loves it too much."

"Oh she didn't pay me in money." Twist replied, "She paid me in diamonds. I don't know where she got them from but then looking the other way is an integral part of my business."

"Paid you in diamonds." Xander laughed, "You can't be that good."

Twist shrugged, "If you doubt me why don't you just ask Buffy?"

The two humans in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at Twist.

"Why would I ask Buffy?" Xander said, lethally slow.

Twist giggled, "Oh, you know that call on my pager last night?... I think I be leaving now."

Twist left the room before anything violent could happen and Xander laughed it off, "He's so joking."

"Yeah. Joking." Willow said with a gulp, "Buffy would never.. not with him."

"That's right. Not with that."

"It's absurd." Willow tried to agree with Xander.

Xander hemmed, "Umm. So, bow tie done?"

Willow fixed the angle of it and nodded, saying "I'm sure nothing happened."

"Nothing did happen."

"Yeah. Nothing."

"Nothing."

"What were we talking about? I've forgotten about already."

OXOXOX

At the chapel, Anya's room for preparations.

Buffy was smiling like an idiot, continuously giggling like the whole world was a joke only she understood.

Tara and Buffy was helping Anya with her dress and the recitation of her vows while Faith was sitting down in a chair, looking on with one of her trademark frowns.

Buffy was in her green bridesmaid dress and Tara was in a matching color. Faith was wearing an out of character blue dress and wore two colorful butterfly hairclips in her hair. Dawn wasn't the only one playing dress up this Halloween.

"Okay, I don't get it, B." Faith said suddenly, "Why have you got that I-just-came-my-brains-out look."

Buffy blinked at Faith then laughed, "Do I really look like that or are you making that up?"

"You are very cheerful today." Anya noticed, "But the term mood-swing comes to mind."

"You're not just happy, you're .. glowing." Tara said with a brilliant smile then gasped, "Oh! Oh! Are you pregnant?"

"What! No. I'm just in a good mood." Buffy shot back then giggled some more, "But I could be like totally preggers if I wanted."

"Oh, I know what it is." Faith said, grinning evilly at Buffy, "You took my advice and brought one of those sybian power tools like I told you to. Like I said, if anything would get you off, it would be that!"

Buffy's eyes shot wide open, "It's definitely NOT that! Only you would buy one of those monstrosities."

Buffy didn't notice Tara and Anya's guilty looks.

"So what's the dealio then?" Faith asked, getting impatient, "I know you, B. You don't get a happy like this without a reason."

Buffy looked at the ceiling for a second and the smile that wouldn't quit crept back onto her face, "Okay, it's like this. You know last night?"

"I sure do." Faith said as she gave Tara a wicked smile.

Buffy noticed the look, not understanding the significance and continued, "Well, after I left, Twist was waiting for me in the hallway."

Faith laughed "And he gave you an orgasm? High five, girl!"

Buffy glared at Faith and the dark Slayer slowly put her hand down from the high five position.

"No. We didn't have sex." Buffy hissed then giggled, "He gave me a foot rub."

Everyone looked at Buffy like she had turned insane.

"It was a really good foot rub." Buffy added, less enthusiastically this time.

Faith scratched her head and asked "Is there such thing as a footgasm?"

Buffy stared at Faith for a second then slapped her upside the head, "Is that all you think about?"

"Well, yeah. sometimes." Faith confessed, "But I don't get it. He gave you a foot rub and now you're all happy-happy-joy-joy?"

"He must be very very good." Anya said conversationally, "You really are glowing."

Buffy chuckled, "Thanks. And yes, he is absolutely amazing."

By now, Faith had pulled up one of her shoed feet onto her lap and was prodding it in confusion.

"I don't get it." Faith told the others, "Is a foot rub slang for something?"

"It's a type of massage." Buffy said with a laugh, "It's relaxing."

Faith dropped her foot back to the floor and frowned, "Never pegged you for that kinky shit, B. But then, you can't get off so I guess you've got to get your kicks somewhere."

"Massages are not kinky." Buffy defended herself and Tara followed her up with "Yeah."

"Yes they are." Faith said as if it was obvious, "Guys are always paying attention to the parts which don't need it. Tits, ass and legs. Every third guy tries to nibble my ear off. None of those places have anything to do with sex at all."

Buffy chuckled, "Faith. Twist didn't give me a massage to have sex with me, although that would've been a good way to go about it. I was so relaxed he could've eaten my brains out with a spoon and I wouldn't have minded."

Faith blinked, "Really?"

Buffy nodded gleefully, "Yeah. I think I was in some other state of consciousness."

"So to get off, you have to get your feet rubbed?" asked Faith, having a hard time understanding this.

"I didn't GET OFF! It was just very nice. Okay?"

Faith frowned, "Okay. I guess. Hey, B. Could you give me some pointers here? Like how you go about this? Do you rub between the toes or something?"

Buffy sighed, "I've never actually done it to anyone before. Why don't you ask Twist? He's got the technique down."

Faith frowned again, "Right. Ask Twist. Sure, I'll get right on that."

OXOXOX

After being dressed, Xander came out and decided to meet and greet some guests. He knew they would be evil and wretched and related to him but it would take his mind off the mothra sized butterflies in his stomach.

"Hymen's greetings." an elder demon greeted Xander.

"Hello to you too." Xander said, shaking their hand, "Welcome to hell. I'm the mayor and the groom. I hope you enjoy your stay."

"I brought a gift. I suppose there's a table." the demon asked, pulling out a box with many air holes punctured in the side. By the way the box was moving around, there was something moving inside it and it wanted to get out.

"I'll take that." said Dawn, coming up from behind Xander, "And I'm sure I can find something to feed it too. Thank you for the generous gift, I'm sure the couple will greatly appreciate it."

"I'm sure we will." Xander said, wearing his happy-mayor face, "And Dawn, have I told you how beautiful you look today?"

Dawn stopped in her tracks and blinked, "wh-whuh?"

"You. Beautiful. Good job."

For Xander, the incident where Dawn almost killed him was forgiven. Maybe he was soft but he found it hard to stay angry at Dawn since he was her first crush. Dawn, however, wasn't quite ready to forgive herself and she was still on edge around Xander.

Maybe it had something to do with how she was dry humping him when she handcuffed him to the chair.

Dawn gibbered something and unconsciously hugged the present box. When she found her voice she laughed it off, "Oh, you know, Halloween only comes once a year. Eep!"

Dawn held the box back out at arms length and gasped, "It ate my corsage!"

Xander had to laugh at display and wonder what exactly was inside the box. His curiosity was quickly forgotten at the entrance of Harmony and Giles. Once inside and out of the sunlight, Harmony took off the absurdly thick fur coat and unfolded her sun umbrella to reveal a figure hugging pale grey dress that complemented Giles impeccable two piece suit of the same color.

"Oh, look at you two." Xander said with a smile, "Matching clothes."

"Few can pull it off but I think we do." said Harmony, "Don't you, honey?"

"Quite." Giles replied in total agreement, "Oh and here is Harmony's wedding present. Careful. It's heavy."

Xander took the small package from Giles and almost dropped it.

"God. What is it?" Xander huffed as he got a better hold of it, "A lead weight?"

"Actually it's a solid golden cross from Spain circa fourteenth century." Harmony replied with enthusiasm, "I had Joyce appraise it."

"I believe it would make a suitable heirloom." Giles told Xander, "So try not to drop it. Gold bends easily."

"Where would Harmony get a gold cross from?" Xander asked.

"Do you remember last year when there was a archaeological dig on high street?" Harmony asked, "Spike and I got there long before the archaeologists found it."

"So you stole it?" Xander said with a frown.

"No. I found it. There's a big difference. And I had Giles wrap it for obvious reasons."

"So your gift is money? That's great. I know Anya will love it." Xander said with a grin then noticed something off on the other side of the room, "Would you excuse me? There seems to be something that needs my attention."

Giles smiled, "Xander. You shouldn't need to do anything on your wedding day. That's what the best man and maid of honor are for."

"And where would those two be? Well, Willow isn't here and Buffy is over in the corner giving me a come-over-here look."

Giles chuckled and patted Xander on the back as he walked past.

In truth, Buffy had not given Xander any such look. She was just sitting in the corner, looking introverted.

"Hey, Buffy." Xander said cheerfully, "This is my wedding but you're the one who looks like they're getting cold feet."

Buffy blinked at Xander, only just registering his appearance, "Is that a vampire joke? Because it's not funny."

Xander frowned, "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? Is something wrong? No, nothing's wrong. I'm just so happy."

"You're just so happy so you're brooding in the corner?"

Buffy sighed, "I'm not brooding, honestly, I'm just thinking."

Xander directed her outside into the sunlight which the demons seemed to instinctively avoid.

Once outside and off to the side a little bit, Xander demanded "Okay, spill."

"Xander. You don't need to hear about my problems right now. You've got your own."

Xander chuckled, "I don't think of marrying Anya as a problem. It's more like something that I can't stop. Kinda like a tropical hurricane or an earthquake. Right now, I want to hear about your problems."

"Umm. It's just… I don't feel like the Slayer anymore."

Xander raised an eyebrow, "Huh?"

"Look, I'm not blaming you but –"

"Why would you blame me!" Xander asked, suddenly offended.

"Um. I said I wasn't blaming you."

"But.. Sorry, go on." Xander said uncomfortably.

"You closed the hellmouth." Buffy said quickly.

Xander thought about this and nodded with "Ahhh. Oh."

Buffy nodded, "And now I don't know what I'm doing here. What am I doing here? Babysitting chocolate addicted vampires? What's keeping me here?"

"Nothing, I guess." Xander said with a frown.

"But it's not like I don't appreciate it." Buffy said quickly, "It's just without the hellmouth I'm not the Slayer. Being the Slayer is the only thing I've ever been good at."

"That and cheerleading."

Buffy nodded, "Obviously."

Xander took Buffy's hands in his, looked her in eyes and said "Buffy. I closed the hellmouth for you."

Buffy looked up and him and looked like she was about to cry but said "Okay. This is awkward."

"Well, not just you. But you were one of the most important reasons. I closed it for Willow and Giles and everyone I know. I closed it for Jesse and Kendra and miss Calendar and every one who ever died because of the stupid stuff that goes on here. Hell, I even closed it for Harmony."

Now Buffy was crying but she smiled and jokingly said "I'm sure she appreciates it."

"Well, just don't tell her." Xander replied on the verge of tears, "She's been so nice to me recently, it's just not natural. I don't want to think about what she'd do if I gave her a reason to be nicer."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "She's nice?.. to you?"

Xander nodded his head woefully, "I know. It's bad. She's been so polite and courteous and always brings me my coffee exactly how I like it. I swear if she wasn't with Giles I would've thrown her out on her ass long ago."

Buffy chuckled at that along with Xander for a few beats but the mood quickly turned uncertain again.

"I don't know what I'm going to do." Buffy said sadly, "I think I might have to move to some other hellmouth. Maybe the one in Cleveland. I don't want to live in Cleveland."

Xander leant over and hugged Buffy, "Don't worry Buffy. You're not alone in this. We'll figure something out."

"Thanks Xander." Buffy said, holding him in the hug like he was a big tuxedoed teddy bear, "You always know how brighten my day."

They stood like that for a while until Xander asked "Um, Buffy. Did you have sex with Twist?"

"WHAT!" Buffy shrieked, "He said that!"

Suddenly not in hug mode, Xander nodded, "Kinda, yeah."

"Oooh." Buffy fumed and Xander imagined hot steam blowing out her ears, "I'm going to kill him."

Xander was about to wish her luck but she was out of earshot by the time he thought of it. Instead of chasing her, he just walked back into the wedding.

As he entered, he was quickly accosted by his Father.

"Have you thought this through, son?" his Father asked with whisky breath.

"Yes, Dad. I have thought this through. I love her and she loves me and that's all there is to it."

"But have you really thought this through? Think about the children? Deformities can skip generations sometimes. Unless she's hideously deformed under her clothes where we can't see it."

Xander rolled his eyes, "She's not. I've seen her naked."

"Oh." his father said, slightly more relieved then he asked "You didn't knock her up, did you? Is that what this is about?"

"Dad!"

"She's just after your money, son. She's just taking advantage of your position as mayor. Is she blackmailing you?"

"Dad. It's nothing like that. I've known Anya for years, since high school and we've been together long before I ever dreamed of running for mayor. Even if she was deformed under her clothes, I'd still be marrying her. For children, we could always adopt. I've thought of everything and nothing is stopping this marriage."

His father stood back with a disappointed look on his face but Xander didn't let it faze him. His Father had been a phantom hanging over Xander's head for almost all of his life but today he was putting his foot down. No drunken, bitter lout would stop this marriage.

"Excuse me." A wizened old man approached Xander, taking him off to the side, "But I have something I need to show you. I know this might sound crazy but you need to come with me."

"No. That doesn't sound crazy at all." Xander humored the old man, trying to figure out who they were, "Uh, who are you again?"

"I'm you. From the future."

OXOXOX

Faith stalked through the crowds and found Twist smiling towards a pair of bluish-grey demonesses, possibly sisters although all these demons looked the same to Faith.

Faith noticed the two demon girls were giggling and whispering naughties to each other.

As she approached him, Twist looked up at Faith and smiled, "I like being me sometimes."

Faith frowned at this and shook her head clear, "Umm. Can I talk to you again?"

"Sure." Twist said, guiding Faith out to a somewhat secluded hallway on the side of the church. In the background, Xander was being guided off by the old man he had just been talking to earlier.

"So how do you do it?" Faith asked, "Foot rubs. Teach me. Now."

Twist blinked at her, "It takes some practice. I can't just tell you how to do straight off."

"Don't give me that." Faith said angrily, "Just tell me how to do it."

Twist tilted his head and asked "Did I somehow hurt you?"

"No." Faith shot back with laugh, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's just, you seem hurt for some reason."

"Me? Hurt? You're losing it. I just want to know what this footsie thing about."

"Well, it's not about sex like you're mistaking it for. It's about filling that hole inside you."

"All this from just rubbing someone's foot?"

Twist shook his head, "I'm not talking about feet now."

Faith frowned, "So what are you talking about?"

"You. You know that something is missing but you won't open your eyes long enough to see what it is. You're hoping that if you keep your eyes closed, it'll all go away."

"What are you talking about? I'm not missing anything."

Twist nodded, sarcastically "Yeah, you're a complete individual. Nothing's wrong with you."

"Screw you, buddy. You just come around and act like you know everything about me. Why am I even listening to your crap?"

"Because you were born like everyone else, incomplete. You think you're strong but all that comes from within is pain and misery. Forget good and evil. When you were working for the mayor, you were just bringing out into the world what you were feeling within. You felt pain so you caused pain. You wanted to die so you made the people around you die. Even then, with your fucked up world view, you knew you were wrong, didn't you? You didn't want it but you couldn't help yourself."

As Twist talked, he moved closer and closer to Faith and she backed up against the wall.

"Shut the fuck up." Faith hissed, now squirming against the wall.

"Forget being strong. Don't you get it? It's killing you. You need to feel, you need to live, you need to love."

The door to the side opened suddenly and Dawn came out, surprised at the close proximity of the two in the hall.

"Faith." Dawn said slowly, "Is Twist annoying you?"

Faith smirked, "Yeah. He is. Thinks he's god's gift."

Dawn rolled her eyes and grabbed Twist by the collar and dragged him off into the room she came from, "Come on, you. You can help me with this little problem I've got."

"Dawn." Twist whined, "I wasn't being inappropriate. I swear."

"Yeah, yeah." Dawn replied, not believing him.

Faith let out a sigh of relief and started involuntarily taking in quick breathes of unneeded air. Then she started panicking as she felt something shifted inside her mind.

Her eyes shot wide open and she held her head as her perceptions of the world around her changed.

She stopped breathing hard when she realized that her perceptions were just returning to normal.

"What the hell?" Faith said as she looked around.

The question on the forefront of her mind was when did her perceptions change to begin with and why couldn't she notice it?

When she was trying to figure this out, Dawn came out of the room looking for Faith.

"Are you okay?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah but I think someone's been screwing with my brain. Maybe one of the guests?"

Dawn had a guilty look on and Faith glared at her.

"Ummmm." said Dawn as she wondered how to word her sentences, "You see, it was Twist. He sometimes likes to um, as you said it, screw with people's brains."

"Why would he do that?" Faith asked angrily.

Dawn shrugged but blocked Faith's entrance into the room.

"Dawn. Get out of my way, I'm going to murder the puke."

"Faith. Please. Just drop this." Dawn pleaded.

"Drop it? He could've done permanent damage to me."

Dawn shook her head, "He wouldn't do that. He said he was trying to help you."

"And you believe him?" Faith said through gritted teeth so as to keep her voice down.

Buffy came upon the scene and asked Dawn, "Hey, have you seen your brother?"

Dawn threw a thumb back to the door where Twist was, seemingly oblivious to Buffy's angry state.

"Thanks." Buffy said with resolve.

A few seconds after Buffy stormed into the room, she came right back out looking a little greener although that could've had something to do with her bridesmaid dress.

"What is Twist doing?" Buffy asked.

"Just trying to keep one of Anya's presents under control." Dawn explained, "The gift giver came from a different dimension where the spawning seasons are a little different. As far as they knew it wasn't supposed to start mitosis for another four weeks. But now it's here and it's letting loose the squirmies like it's a lolly scramble."

Buffy took this in and asked again, "So what is Twist doing?"

Dawn sighed, "He's playing nursemaid. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go make out with Kennedy in the cloakroom. Be sure to get me for the ceremony, okay?"

OXOXOX

In a side room in the church, the old man was holding up a small orb which was shooting a bright purple light into Xander's forehead. After a while, he lowered the orb and the light was sucked back into it.

"I'm sorry." the old man said sadly, "I didn't mean to show you that."

"What-what was that?" Xander asked, terrified.

"Your future.. if you go ahead with marrying Anya."

"But no. I would never do that."

"You will. You'll ruin her life and then you'll kill her with a frying pan."

Xander looked at the old man who claimed to be him from the future and he laughed.

The old man frowned, "This isn't funny. I killed Anya and I came back to warn you so you wouldn't do it too."

"In thirty years, I'm broke, jobless and I don't want to have sex with Anya?" Xander chuckled, "Come on. If you really were me, you could change that all just by bringing along some lottery numbers."

"But-but it doesn't work like that."

"Is this one of those butterfly effect things? Pluh-ease. I was just given a solid gold crucifix as a wedding present and my credentials have never looked better. Even with a bad back, I could probably find some sort of work, even as just a consultant. You sir, are a charlatan."

The old man stood back and sneered, "Considering that you're marrying Anyanka, I thought you would be a lot stupider. I guess all I can do now is kill you."

"Arr, monkey poop." Xander gulped as the old man grew larger, more menacing, darker and considerably more spike-covered.

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	4. My dying bride

OXOXOX

Faith was pigging out at the buffet at the time with Buffy giving her disapproving glares.

"Are we allowed to eat now?" asked a young demon boy with short black horns.

"No." Buffy stated as fact.

"But she is." he said in annoyance.

Faith snorted, "Just threaten to spill coffee on her dress and she'll leave you alone."

The demon looked at Faith and frowned, asking Buffy "She's human, isn't she? I thought humans were supposed to be all nice and stuff."

"So far, no particular species wants to claim Faith as their own." Buffy replied with a smile, "I think all that foundation has leaked into her skin and caused her to mutate into something else."

"You want to talk about make up?" Faith chuckled with her mouth full of sausage roll, "She uses concealer on her legs."

Buffy turned slightly embarrassed, "But they get blotchy."

Faith chuckled and moved towards the wedding cake.

"No!" Buffy said adamantly, "You are not cutting the cake! The wedding couple have to do it themselves. It's tradition."

Faith sighed and backed off, "Fine. But look at it. It's a glorified Christmas cake."

"They make them that way because they keep for months." the demon said helpfully, "That way you can send it off to people who couldn't make it."

Faith raised an eyebrow and then snorted, "You really think there'll be anything left of that cake once we start eating it? They should've made it in true Xander Harris tradition, out of jelly-filled donuts."

Buffy thought about that, "That actually sounds nice. Funny and kinda cheap though."

Faith nodded with a wicked grin, "See, it suits Xander."

The demon boy hemmed towards Buffy, "Umm. You're Buffy, aren't you? You're half-sisters with Dawn?"

Buffy shook her head, "No. Dawn was kind of adopted. Why?"

"Well, since you're her sister, I thought maybe I could ask you about her. Like what sort of things is she into? What sort of music does she like?"

"Aww. You like Dawn." Buffy said sweetly.

The boy nodded slightly, "She's cool. I know she looks human but I'm willing to look beyond that."

"That's big of you." Faith said, stuffing a fluffy pastry in her mouth.

"And she's got that huge mansion." The boy said with a silly grin, "And she seems open to new ideas so she might not mind getting some horns surgically implanted."

Faith and Buffy both stared at the demon boy and in the background there was a disturbance which neither of them seemed to notice.

"Horns?" Faith asked, "Okay. This day has been crazy. First feet and now horns? What is with you people and your crazy fetishes? You guys need help."

"It's not a fetish." the boy said defensively "It's a symbol of status. My parents would never let me date someone without horns."

Faith and Buffy both stared at the demon boy again.

"Wow and I thought my family life sucked." said Faith followed by a loud, bloodcurdling scream in the background.

Buffy turned and ran through the crowed with Faith a few seconds behind.

She swung open the door to a ready room and was confronted with a large grey skinned demon, its face dripping with fresh gore.

"More food." it said, kinda crazily and gleefully charged Buffy.

Buffy slugged it one right in the forehead and it reeled back into the room, slipping on blood and onto its back.

As it got up, Buffy let loose a brutal flying kick and the demon staggered back into the wooden walls, denting them.

Buffy came at it again and it lashed out with its claws, raking her across the face.

Before it had another chance to attack, Faith come out from behind Buffy and hit it with a bone shattering haymaker into the heart.

It gagged but didn't go down and Faith kept slamming into it, now holding its head with one hand and striking with the other fist. Within four hits, its head caved in and Faith let it drop to the ground, dead.

Faith looked back at Buffy to check the damage done to her and realized it was so much worse than she could've thought possible.

Buffy's eyes were filled with tears and not because of the fresh claw marks that streaked from her nose to her ear. The source of her pain was the headless corpse wearing Anya's wedding dress.

"Xander." Buffy said as if on autopilot and woodenly walked back out into the main room.

"I can't leave him." Willow bawled out as Spike held her back from the trophy room where Buffy had seen Xander walk in just a few minutes ago.

Buffy walked towards the room, Xander's father on the floor crying "My beautiful boy. Look what they did to my son."

Pushing herself, Buffy kept walking as the room as the room broke down in tears and started leaving en masse.

She looked in the room Xander's body was in and then spun around and threw up all over the floor.

OXOXOX

Five minutes later and almost all of the demons had evacuated and police had replaced them, taping up the scene with yellow tape as if it would somehow contain the ugliness inside. The Harris family was stretched outside in varied forms of grief and in the rain.

Spike was trying to coax Tara into taking Willow home. After a while, he gave up and turned towards Faith. He said something to her and she nodded, wiping some tears away from her face.

"Kennedy." Faith called to the other Chaser, "We're going back home. Want a lift?"

Kennedy shook her head as she looked stared at the wide open front doors to the outside world.

"There's nothing we can do here." Faith said, sounding dead when she was going for sympathetic, "Lets just go back home and get kitchen floor drunk."

"Where's Dawn?" Kennedy asked, now looking at Faith, "She was with me before it happened. Now she's gone."

"I'm sure she's fine." Faith lied, "You know her. Nothing can keep her down. She's done this lots of times. Thousands of years experience, remember?"

Spike leant over and hugged Kennedy from behind, "Luv, Dawn will come home when she's ready. You shouldn't stay in here."

Spike seemed to be the only one taking this well. Harmony was still crying. Her best friend and her employer just died. The only comfort left in her life was Giles who wasn't bothering with the stiff upper lip act this time.

"What do we do with the presents if the wedding couple die?" Harmony asked.

"Harm." Giles hissed, "That's.. don't talk like that."

"I'm sorry. I just don't want to take my present back. I really wanted them to have it."

Giles rested his head against Harmony's and she said "I wish they were still alive."

"Me too." the older man seconded her wish.

OXOXOX

Somewhere completely different.

Xander and Anya were resting together in a huge four post bed with luxuriously fluffy satin sheets. At least, it looked like satin. The only thing they were sure about was that they had just had the most amazing sex of their life.

Or maybe that should be afterlife. They both were pretty sure they had just died. It was a little confusing but they were new to this so they guessed it was natural.

Above them, writhing knots of light hung in midair like a glowing octopi stuck in spider webs. It was some form of strange lighting appliance.

Xander chuckled and not for the first time he asked "Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know. It doesn't look like any afterlife I've been to before." said Anya, "But at least we don't get tired easily here, which is one good thing."

Xander raised an eyebrow, "Again?"

Anya considered this, "I don't know. I'm more than satisfied. You?"

"I think I've had enough sex to last me the next few months."

Anya giggled, "You said that before. You only lasted two days."

"I'm a liar."

"Mmm, wicked man." Anya flirted and kissed Xander playfully quick.

"Mmm, wicked woman." Xander chuckled back, stealing a kiss from her this time.

"That's the way you like them, isn't it?"

"Only with you, Ahn. Only with you."

There was a knock at the door to what appeared to be their hotel room and neither of them was quite sure what to do about it.

"Come in?" Anya called out experimentally.

The door opened and a few men came in, led by a dark blue skinned, skinny female with severely white hair and pointy ears. Xander couldn't help but compare her to a photographic negative.

"I trust everything meets your expectations?" the female asked with a warm, beautiful voice that contradicted her somewhat shocking appearance.

"Umm. I guess so. Thanks." Xander said as the men started filling the wardrobes with clothes, "It's a very nice room. I don't think I've ever been in one so nice."

The female curtsied and said "You honor us with your words but I have to inform you that the Keeper requests your presence on the observation deck."

"Excuse me." Xander called out to the servants before they left, "But who exactly is this Keeper guy?"

The men kept walking but the woman stayed with a coy smile, "They own this realm. You have no reason to be afraid of them as you have been found in their favor."

With that, the woman took a few steps back out of the room and closed the doors.

Xander and Anya looked at each other for a few beats until Anya shrugged and said "Let's go meet the Keeper."

Xander sighed, "Seems we have to."

OXOXOX

A few minutes from the couple's perspective.

Xander and Anya found themselves walking along a long, wide hallway lined with honor guards resplendent in uniform. The fact that many of them weren't human didn't seem to bother the humans in the ranks.

After the last few days of dealing with Anya's "Family" Xander was surprised to find that it didn't bother him as much as it normally would have.

When they neared the end of the hallway, the giant city-wall sized double doors creaked inwards, revealing a monumentally huge domed room with a single white robed individual glowing softly in the middle of it.

As Xander and Anya walked over the threshold, the doors creaked back closed and sealed them in.

With nothing else to do the couple approached the white robed figure and as they did, they realized they knew them.

"Dawn." Xander gasped, "You're the Keeper?"

Dawn nodded glumly, "That's me."

Xander frowned, "Okay. That's impossible. You're not Dawn. Firstly, it's just weird. Secondly, you can't rule this realm or whatever because you live back on earth."

Dawn sighed, "You realize that you two both died, don't you?"

Anya nodded easily enough but Xander didn't reply as if wanting more proof of his demise.

"And this is what? Our afterlife?" Anya asked.

Dawn shook her head, "No. Think of it more as a transitional phase. A stepping stone to your afterlife. It's kind of like you're going to the doctor and right now you're in the waiting room."

"So .. where are we?" asked Xander.

"Basically, you're inside my head. My heart to be more precise. That's where my power source is located and that's what gives me the ability to do all this."

Dawn held up her hands to the world around her to show what she meant.

"And how exactly did we end up here?" Xander asked skeptically.

Dawn sighed, "I um.. Twist and me, we um.. When people die around us, we absorb their souls. And before you tell me it's wrong and it's bad, we can't help it. It's automatic."

"Oh. It's automatic." Xander said with a frown, "So now we're stuck here? For how long? Eternity?"

Dawn shook her head, "You're not stuck here. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh!" Anya gasped, "That's what the appendix was talking about. It makes so much more sense now. Echoes have power over the dead. We thought it meant they had necromantic powers when they just have powers over dead souls."

Dawn raised an eyebrow at Anya, "Umm. Yeah. That's right. But can we get serious for a moment? We're dealing with your afterlife here."

Xander frowned, "Why would we need to be serious? Uh, am I going to the bad place or something."

Dawn chuckled, "No silly. It's just, you're both going to different places. You're being split up."

Both of them blinked and said in unison, "We're WHAT!"

Dawn flinched under that but continued with her explanation, "Xander's heavenbound and Anya's going to go through the tiresome process of purgatory to work off her many sins. So you'll be without her for quite a while. Time works differently out here. Everything takes so much longer."

"What? You can't be serious. Don't we get a say in this?" Xander asked, enraged.

"Yeah. You do." Dawn said as if it hurt, "And that's the problem."

Xander processed what she said then asked "How is that a problem? I'll just hang out with her in purgatory or wherever she goes."

Dawn shook her head, "It doesn't work like that. You see, you can only exist in a realm where you have a form. On earth, you had your physical bodies. From what I gather, you have new forms created for you in the afterlife, like these forms I created for you here. Right now, Anya has a form in purgatory and in Heaven, you'll have a form. If you try to follow Anya to purgatory, once there you'll be formless, a ghost, not tied to anything. Trust me on this, Xander. A ghost is no type of life for anyone."

"So why don't we just stay here?" asked Xander, "It's doesn't look that bad."

Dawn raised an eyebrow, "I guess you haven't seen outside yet. This place, the only people who I let stay in it are the hellbound. Tell didn't have the heart to condemn people to hell and .. neither do I."

Xander considered this and looked over to Anya and asked her "But we could adapt, couldn't we?"

Dawn sighed, "Xander. I can't keep you here for much longer. If I do, eventually one of them will come down and take you from me."

Xander frowned, "What do you mean one of them? Who are you talking about?"

"Them!" Dawn said, pointing to the ceiling, "Angels. Who do you think I was talking about? They'll literally come down to earth and rip my heart out to get at you."

"You expect me to believe that angels... ANGELS! will come down and take me to heaven?"

"Yuh. Pretty much."

"Why would they do that? I want to be here with my WIFE! And you expect me to believe that some guy with wings is going to come and take me away from that because I did something good in my life?"

"It's not about you. They just don't like us. Echoes, I mean. Some of them will jump at any chance there is to hack into us. And it's all in the rules too. We're allowed to keep the damned because no one is officially supposed to care about them but you, you're wanted in heaven. You're needed there."

"This just isn't right!" Xander yelled at Dawn.

"Go." Anya told Xander.

"What?" said Xander, not believing what he was hearing.

"Xander. Don't make this harder than it already is." Anya said, trying to be strong, "You deserve this."

"She's right." agreed Dawn, "You touched the people around you with your love and your humor. You saved lives and you gave us hope in our darkest hours. Hey, you even closed the hellmouth."

Xander smiled bashfully, "Oh come on. Anyone could have done that. I was just in the right place at the right time."

Dawn laughed a little, "That's all a hero is, Xander. Didn't you know that?"

"I'm no hero." Xander said with a frown.

"You're my hero." Dawn said, trying not to cry.

"And you're mine too." Anya added, "My big, strong, brave Xander. You still don't get just how great you are, do you?"

"You're the one who makes me great." Xander said suavely, "I mean it. Without you-"

Anya cut him off with a long, slow kiss that left him breathless.

"If you have either of you have anything you want to say, now's the time." Dawn told them.

Anya and Xander looked at each other, both uncomfortably.

"Ummm." Anya said, embarrassed, "I'm kinda sorry for getting you killed."

Xander snorted, "That's okay. I always knew you would be the death of me. I just thought it would come a little later on in life, like around forty when you give me a heart attack during outrageously good sex."

Anya chuckled, "Yeah. I am pretty good, aren't I?"

Xander chuckled too, "That you are. I guess we won't be able to have sex for a while, will we?... Um, Dawn? Can you have sex in Heaven?"

Dawn looked at him strangely but still answered, "I have no idea. I'm just guessing here but they've probably got something better up there."

"What about the others?" Xander asked, "Did anyone else get hurt?"

Dawn shook her head, "No. Except the demon. Buffy and Faith killed it pretty quick. Your.. um.. No one took your deaths very well. Not even your father."

"Could you tell them we're okay?" Xander asked.

Dawn raised an eyebrow at her, "And how would I go about that? By saying that I talked to you personally? That always turns out badly."

"Can we get this started?" Anya asked impatiently, "I want to do this afterlife thing already."

Dawn nodded and waved her hand. A soft white portal flared into existence to the side.

"Xander first." Dawn directed them, "And remember Xander, no monkey business. Go straight to Heaven, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars."

"So, I guess this is goodbye." Xander said to Dawn.

Dawn gave him a sad smile back, "Where you're going, I'm not sure they believe in goodbyes."

Xander frowned and backed up towards the light, "Okay then. Umm. I guess I'll see you later then. Anya, I love you."

"I'll be right behind you. Just wait for me there. " Anya blurted out then turned her back on him, steeling herself to her fate of never seeing him again.

Dawn noticed this and tried to keep smiling but failed, giving up she told Xander "When you're ready just walk into the portal and look away."

Xander gave Anya once last look, closed his eyes and turned away to hide his anger.

Anya broke down and slumped to her knees.

Dawn waved her hand again and the white portal disappeared.

It was nearly a minute until Dawn mumbled "Um. Anya, I-"

"I know." Anya said, pulling herself together, "I'm hellbound, aren't I?"

"People like us don't get to go to Heaven."

"Thank you." Anya said, getting up and hugging Dawn, "Thank you for not telling Xander. I just didn't think this far ahead. I just didn't think. I should have never have made him love me like that. I did that, I made him do that. I-I should have let him find a nice girl. A nice girl like Faith maybe or Harmony."

Instead of commenting on Anya's idea of nice girls, Dawn stroked Anya's hair and said "Anya, you silly girl, loving Xander was probably the best thing you've ever done in your life. Not just for you but for him too. No one and I really mean no one took him seriously. No one, not even me or Buffy or Willow, made him feel like the man he really was but you did. You made him see for the first time who he really was. Don't you ever say you regret that."

Anya blinked at Dawn, "I really did all that?"

"I read between the lines a lot. No one really seems to notice that."

Anya frowned, "What about Kennedy?"

Dawn shook her head, "Nah. She doesn't love me. We're just very good friends. It's better than nothing, right?"

Anya nodded in an I-guess-so way and looked around the room, "So what is there to do in this place?"

Dawn shrugged, "There are a few job positions you might be interested in. Like, right now, I've got some people interrogating the demon that killed you."

Anya blinked, "That demon is here?"

Dawn nodded, "People die nearby, their souls come here or in a demon's case, you could call that a spirit or whatever."

"So I could go interrogate him?" Anya asked, "And I'd be allowed to slap him around and stuff?"

Dawn sighed and Anya brightened up saying "That is SO cool."

OXOXOX

Faith stirred awake, groggy and with a headsplitting hangover.

On the bed next to her, Kennedy was on top of Spike and acting kinda strange for a lesbian.

"No. That's wrong." Faith said, holding her head to stop it spinning.

Kennedy and Spike took no notice of her as they were occupied with other thoughts.

"No. Xander." Faith mumbled and fell out of the Spike's bed, "Xander. What are you doing?"

At this, Spike and Kennedy stopped and looked over at the little girl trying to pull herself together.

"What's wrong, Faith?" Kennedy asked.

"It's Xander." she replied from the floor.

"He's dead, luv. Get over it." Spike said dismissively before going back to nuzzling into Kennedy's cleavage.

He stopped suddenly and sniffed the air, sensing something was wrong.

In the meantime, Faith stumbled back up and frantically clambered up the stairs out of the basement.

Noticing that Spike had stopped, Kennedy reached down, took his head in her hands and kissed him passionately on the mouth and started rocking herself against him again.

After that Spike totally forgot the scent of blind fear which had floated of Faith and focused on better things.

OXOXOX

Now up in her own room, Faith was hastily putting some clothes on.

"Why am I hung over?" asked a voice which wasn't Faith's own, "I'm dead, so how am I hung over?"

Faith's spun around looking for the sound of the voice.

"So how was my wake?" Xander asked, appearing out of thin air, "Did Giles cry? Heh. That'd be funny."

"You. You're not real."

Xander patted himself down a little, "I feel real enough. But really, how was my wake? I want to know."

Faith stared at him and said "You only died a few hours ago."

Xander raised an eyebrow, "Really? Hmm. I guess time moved differently where I was. They said something about that. I wasn't really listening."

"You're a ghost?" Faith asked.

Xander chuckled, "It's the new me. What do you think?"

"You're a ghost." Faith said again.

"So observant." Xander said as he idly reached out and stroked Faith's cheek.

Faith flinched back and held her hand against her face where he had touched him, "What are you doing here?"

Xander shrugged and then frowned, "That's a good question. Although, I do seem to be connected to you. It's strange. I'm slowly getting your memories too, just like before."

Faith shook her head and groaned, "No. Not that again. It was bad enough the first time."

Xander flinched as an unwanted memory popped into his head, "Oh goddamn it. I never wanted to know that about Dawn."

"You think having sex with Dawn is bad?" Faith asked, "What about seeing what your Uncle Rory did with that moose?"

"I'll take that and raise you what happened in.. Okay, forget I said anything. I don't want to play this game anymore."

"Then get out of MY HEAD!" Faith screamed at him.

"I can't!" Xander said defensively, "I should be basking in heaven rays right about now but instead, I'm tethered to your stupid mortal coil."

"Hey! My mortal coil is not stupid." Faith shot back.

"Yuh, it's a real temple." Xander snarked back then gagged, "God girl. Oh, that's disgusting. Five guys in one night!"

"What! Like you wouldn't do five girls."

"No."

Faith shot the ghost of Xander a skeptical look and he broke into giggles, confessing "Okay, so I would do give girls… hang on. I don't do people. I make sweet sweet love to them. I don't do, you do, not me."

Faith groaned, "Oh great. I think we're going for the full spit swap this time. You're starting to talk like me."

"I know!" Xander shouted, "This is bad. This is sooo bad."

Faith chuckled and Xander frowned, "What?"

"Buffy's gonna have a hernia when she sees you."

Xander blinked, "Oh god. The others. They don't know."

"Then go visit them." Faith told Xander, "You're a ghost so can't you, I don't know, teleport?"

Xander shook his head, "Like I said before, I'm tethered to your stupid mortal coil. It must have something to do with that connection we have."

"Hey! We don't have a connection!"

Xander sighed, "Okay then. Call it a magical umbilical cord then. Does that make you feel better?"

"Call it a fricken noose around my neck." Faith growled, "You're going to drive me bats."

Xander smiled, "I'll stop if you drive me out of this dump."

"So now I can drive?" Faith asked, "I really guess this is one of those on-your-dead-body cases, isn't it?"

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	5. The last ambush

OXOXOX

By the time Faith reached the Summers residence, it was well past midnight and yet the lights were still on.

Joyce opened the front door and she saw Faith standing outside, looking a complete mess.

She stood there for a moment, not noticing Xander standing next to Faith at all. Faith looked between Joyce and Xander with a frown.

"Hello Faith, is there something I can do for you?" Joyce asked, failing to sound upbeat.

"Can we come in?" Faith asked.

"Sure." Joyce said, "Do you want tea?"

"No. I was just looking for Buffy." Faith said, still looking between Joyce and Xander.

"She's upstairs in her room." Joyce told them and walked off towards the kitchen.

"She didn't see me." said Xander, deflated, "This brings back bad memories."

Faith closed the front door behind her and walked up the stairs to Buffy's room. She opened it without thinking and found Buffy and Twist together on her bed.

Faith gasped and then realized that it wasn't in a sexual position, which relieved her greatly. Twist was hugging Buffy from behind, a compromising position but Buffy didn't seem to mind right now.

Faith and Xander walked into the room and just like Joyce neither Buffy or Twist noticed Xander.

"Sssh." Xander told Faith, "Obviously Buffy can't see me. Don't tell her I'm here. It'll only hurt her more."

Faith nodded slightly and Buffy asked bluntly "What do you want?"

Xander gave Faith a gesture and she sat down on the bed, next to Buffy.

"I just.. wanted to see how you were." Faith said woodenly, "You're fine, right?"

"No. I'm not fine. I don't think I'll ever be fine with this." Buffy said angrily.

"Buffy." Twist whispered slowly, "She didn't mean anything by it. She just wants to help."

After hesitating mid-sentence, Twist started looking around the room and Xander blinked.

"He can sense me." said Xander, "Did you see that? He can tell I'm in the room. I think we could leave otherwise this could get awkward."

"Are you okay?" Twist asked Faith, "You seem a little off."

Faith shook her head, "No. No, I'm fine. I just wanted to check on Buffy."

"Why?" Buffy asked crankily.

"I don't know. Just forget it." Faith said, leaving the room. She ran down the stairs and out the front door, slamming it behind her.

She kept running towards the dirt bike she was borrowing from Kennedy but stumbled to her knees before reached it.

She clutched her chest and it felt like her heart was trying to explode while her vision blacked in and out. After a time, the attack passed and she said "What the hell was that?"

"You've got me." said Xander, "Come on, let's check out the wiccans. Make sure they're not trying something stupid like rising me from the dead."

Faith got back onto her feet and straddled the bike with Xander getting in behind her.

She pulled on the helmet but paused before turning on the ignition. Then she flicked open her visor and looked back at Xander, asking "Do you really need to ride on the back? You're a ghost, remember."

Xander chuckled and rocked back and forth a little, rubbing his groin into her butt, "But it's so much more fun this way."

Faith groaned, "I'm a bad influence on you. What about Anya? Remember her? The girl you were going to marry today? You should be all gloomy, not grinding me from behind."

Xander sighed, "Anya and me, we've parted ways. I guess she was just looking for more in an afterlife than just hanging out with you."

"But aren't you even cut up about it?" Faith asked.

"Two words, Faith." Xander chuckled, "Re-bound."

Faith groaned, "Just keep your hands to yourself, okay? Unlike you, I can still get myself killed on this thing."

"I'll play nice." Xander said sweetly, fitting himself a little too comfortably into Faith from behind.

Faith hemmed, "Can you hold on a little lower?"

"Of course." Xander apologized poorly and lowered his hands.

Faith groaned, "Not that low. Around my waist, you idiot."

OXOXOX

Faith and Xander stood outside Willow and Tara's dorm room.

"What are we doing here?" Faith asked before knocking on the door.

Xander sighed, "I don't know."

"Cos I wouldn't normally come here." Faith pointed out, "I'm not exactly on the best terms with Scooby Jew and her hippie love muffin. Besides, they're busy. They're got some Indigo girls playing and you know what that means."

Xander raised an eyebrow then sniggered and stuck his non-corporeal head through the door. Faith groaned and forcibly pulled him back out.

"Wow." Xander laughed, "You've got to see this."

"I've never been into spectator sports. Let's beat it. And not in that way. God, get your mind out of the gutter. This shared consciousness thing sucks."

"Oh, I don't know." Xander said wickedly, "I'm starting to get off on it. Should I take another look?"

"No." Faith said flatly.

Xander smiled, pulled on Faith and pinned her against the door, "So we'll just get down to business then?"

"Xander. Get off me." Faith hissed, wondering how a ghost was pinning her to a door, "We're in the middle of a hallway."

"I thought you got off on exhibitions." Xander said as he pressed himself up against her, touching her skin as his fingers passed straight through her clothes.

"I'm serious. I'm not in the mood and I've got a headache."

"Come on." Xander whispered hotly into her ear, "You want me. I can feel it in you."

Faith wasn't sure what to say but most of all, she was wondering why she didn't just give in.

Before she came to any conclusions though, the door behind her opened and she fell into the room with Tara ready to cut her head off with the Scythe.

"Faith!" Tara yelled and Faith yelled back "ARR! Don't hit me!"

"What are you doing!" Willow shrieked, "Were you spying on us?"

"What?" Faith asked as both her and Xander fumbled themselves upright.

"You were spying on us, weren't you?" Willow asked, "How could you do that? And how could you do that NOW? Are you that heartless?"

"Willow. It's not what you think." Faith said quickly and wondered for a second when she started caring about what Willow thought, "I just came to check how you were and then I heard your radio and I was just, uh, leaning on the door and.. you opened it. Blam, I'm on the floor. That's what happened."

Tara looked at Faith blankly while Willow looked at her with tears in her eyes.

Faith backed away slowly, "Sorry. I'll be going now."

Faith ran off and Xander walked after her.

"I can't believe that jerk." Willow said as she closed the door, "Tara. You can put the Scythe down now. It's okay."

Tara gulped and shook her head, "No, it's not. It's really not okay. We need to call Giles."

OXOXOX

On the street, outside the dormitories.

"Want to see anyone else, Xander?" Faith asked angrily, "You getting off on seeing them all teary eyed over you?"

"No. Of course not." Xander said defensively, "It's just, in you, I feel alive! Don't you get it? I'm a part of you now. That's why you're the only one who can see me. I can feel the slayer power coursing through your veins and I've never felt anything like it. It's so warm and wet and –"

"Stop right there!" Faith said quickly, backing off, "Unlike B, I don't go for dead guys."

"Except Spike." said Xander who then groaned, "Oh gross. I've got memories of Spike too! and together with DAWN! Oh god, I don't think I'll ever feel clean again."

Faith chuckled, "Hey, Dawnie's not THAT bad. She keeps Kenny happy."

Xander groaned again, "I don't know which is worse, the fact that Dawn isn't that bad in bed or the fact that Kennedy isn't. She's a beautiful, confident, super powered lesbian, the epitome of sexy and yet Kennedy's kinda lame in bed."

"I don't get that either." Faith admitted, "I also don't get what Dawn sees in her."

Xander shrugged, "Maybe Dawn's not in it for the sex."

"Yeah. If she was, she'd just come to me." Faith said with a wicked grin, "Of course, she'd have to get in line."

"Faith." Xander said, suddenly serious.

"What?"

"I don't think I'm here to stay."

Faith blinked, "What do you mean?"

"I think this is like one of those made for cable shows. You're the troubled teen and I'm the guardian angel sent to help you overcome the obstacles in your life. Once I do that, I'm outta here."

Faith raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, right. And what troubles would these be?"

Xander hemmed, "That trouble."

"What trouble again?" Faith asked, trying to hide her thoughts.

Xander rolled his eyes, "When you're trying to hide your thoughts, that's when I see them plain as day. I'm talking about the chip, Faith! You don't have it anymore, do you?"

"No." Faith said quietly.

"And when were you going to tell us?" Xander shot back, "Or weren't you? Were you just going to kill us one at a time?"

"No. Maybe. I don't know. When I had the chip, all I wanted to do was kill you. Now I don't have it and I just want to…"

"Bide your time." Xander said angrily, "Just wait until you can go for maximum shock value. You've been thinking about how you're going to kill us too, haven't you? You've already decided on Buffy. You're going to chain her to a wall in the basement and let Spike rape her again and again. See, Spike's still got a chip but he'd still get off on torturing her, wouldn't he? And after you kill the rest of us, you'll show Buffy, tell her how you killed us, tell us how you made us scream, taunting her."

"I wasn't going to go through with it." Faith said, suddenly finding her back against the wall, "I swear."

"And when you've killed us all and you've turned Dawn against us like you did last time, you'll have Dawn rape Buffy too. And when Buffy begs for it, when she screams out for you to kill her that's when you'll do it. That's when you strike, when she wants it, when she wants you."

Around her, police squad cars broke out of formation and cut off Faith's escape routes.

Xander noticed them the same time Faith did and he looked almost shocked as her.

"Faith, run." Xander said as the police opened their car doors and pointed their guns at Faith.

Faith held her hands up, not running, "I'm unarmed."

"Faith. Run for it." Xander yelled at Faith, "You're the Slayer. You can take a few bullets. Hell, these guys can't even shoot straight."

"Shut up." Faith hissed under her breath.

Kate Lockley, the Chief of Police for Sunnydale during the nightshift, came out and said "Put your guns down, you apes."

"Hey Kate." Faith said tensely, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Can you come with us?" Kate asked, "Something's come up and I've been told to find you and escort you to town hall."

Faith frowned, "What's come up?"

"Giles wouldn't say." Kate said with a frown, "This way, please."

Kate directed Faith into the back of an armored car. Seeing little other choice with half the force still pointing guns at her, Faith obeyed and the solid metal doors were locked behind her, trapping her in. She had a sinking feeling about this and by the way Xander was looking, he did too.

OXOXOX

Four turns of the armored van and a little over two minutes later, the metal doors opened again and Faith walked out to find herself surrounded by the Buffy, Kennedy and Harmony.

"This way." Buffy said coldly and Faith was forced along by Kennedy and Harmony.

"Uh. Did I do something wrong?" asked Faith but the only reply she got was Harmony pushing her a little harder.

Faith was taken through the loading dock, down some ugly concrete corridors and into a large, ugly concrete room with Giles, Willow, Spike, Tara and Twist in.

She was made to sit on a wooden box while the others glared down at her.

"Okay. What's going on?" Faith asked, becoming scared, "Where's the love, guys?"

"What did you do?" Buffy asked, "Did you summon the demon that killed Xander?"

Faith gasped, "You think I did THAT? No! I didn't do that. I wouldn't even know how to do that."

"You've been playing with dark magics, haven't you?" Willow asked then punched Faith in the face, "Tell us what you did!"

Faith was shocked, not from any damage but the fact that Willow punched her in the face.

Willow went to punch her again and Faith caught her fist this time, "I did NOT! summon that thing."

"Then what have you been doing?" Willow said as she pushed Faith back down onto the box, "We know you've been doing something."

"What is this?" Faith asked, "The Spanish inquisition? I haven't been doing anything."

"You stink of black magic." Twist told her, "And Tara agrees with me on this."

Tara nodded in agreement, making Faith frown.

"Black magic? You guys know me. I suck at magic."

"It doesn't matter." Willow told her, "You could've gotten some sorcerer to summon a demon for you and he just took some of your essence for payment. It would give a similar effect."

"What did I say?" Faith yelled at Willow, "I didn't summon that demon! So shut up, Will."

"Let's just step back a little." Buffy said to the others, "Let's just say there's another reason for what's happened to Faith. Anyone got any clues?"

"Some people use dark magic like street drugs." Twist supplied, "It would explain both the aura and the erratic behavior."

"I didn't do anything like that." Faith said shaking her head, "I've been clean for a long time and there's no way I'm going back."

"Then what else could it be?" Willow asked Twist.

"Let's ask her." Buffy told Willow then looked down at Faith, "Faith. Tell us what it is."

"I don't know what you guys are talking about." Faith said while Xander frantically shook his head.

"Yes. You do." Buffy said sternly, "I can't imagine you'd wake up one day all dark magicy and not know why. You've got some idea and you're going to tell us."

Faith gulped and no one else talked. Seeing that she had to give something, Faith said "I really shouldn't. I shouldn't tell you. It's not what you think it's just there's no reason for you to need to know. Not now."

"What is it?" Buffy said, kneeling down to look Faith in the eye, "You can tell me."

Faith chuckled awkwardly, "Umm. It's like this. I see… I see dead people."

No one was expecting this.

"You see dead people?" Spike asked.

"Yeah." Faith said with a nod, "Well, not people. Just a person. Just one… Just Xander."

"That's it. I'm gonna kill her." Willow said and jumped on Faith, knocking her off the box again.

Buffy picked Willow off Faith with ease and stared down at the Brunette, "I can't believe you'd make a joke about that."

"I'm not joking." Faith blurted out, "He's standing right there and I'm the only one who can see him."

"He's standing right where?" Harmony asked, moving back from the direction Faith pointed, "Is he saying anything?"

"Yeah. You're an idiot." Xander told Faith.

Faith smirked, "Yeah. You're an idiot."

"He wouldn't say that." Harmony gasped.

"Actually, that's in character." Willow noted, "But you don't see Xander."

"Why not?" Faith asked, "You've got books about this. Ghosts, mediums and rubbish like that. Hey, some Slayers can even do this. Maybe my powers are finally starting to work properly."

"Oh.. Oh god." Buffy gasped, "I know what this is."

"You do?" Xander asked her, confused, "Cos I'm still a little confused."

Buffy leant down and picked Faith back up, resting her on the crate. She took in a deep breath before talking.

"Faith. The person you're seeing, they're not Xander."

Faith quirked an eyebrow at Buffy then at Xander, "He looks like him."

"But they're not. Have they been giving you a hard time about oh, um, I don't know, trying to kill us? Being evil and stuff like that?"

Faith's brow knotted up in that way it does, "Yeah. Actually they were."

"But I was angry at you." Xander told her, "You wanted to disembowel me and tie me up with my own intestines."

"Well, yeah. That's true." Faith admitted.

Buffy took Faith's face in her hands and said "Don't listen to him, Faith. He's not Xander. He's something else. He's the first evil."

"I'm the what now!" Xander asked in shock.

"Remember how we read about them?" Buffy asked Faith, "They're a master at manipulating people. They come when you're at your weakest and try to get you to kill yourself. They tried to do this to Angel once and now they're trying to do it to you."

"How come I didn't read about that?" Xander asked, offended, "And I'm not this evil thing she's talking about."

Faith chuckled, "Buffy. I'm not going to kill myself. Frankly, it's absurd."

"They obviously haven't gotten to that part yet." Buffy replied, "But trust me, they will. But this is also a good thing."

"It is?" Faith asked skeptically.

"Yeah. It is." Buffy said with a bright smile, "It means that they think you're going to be a threat to evil in the world. You're turning your life around."

"I am?" Faith asked, still skeptically.

"I'd like to say that I had a small part to play in that." Twist said proudly, mostly to Buffy for some reason.

"Is it just me or is Twist trying to get into Buffy's pants?" Xander asked himself.

Faith nodded to Xander and told Twist, "Yeah. A reee-al small part. You're not exactly a big man, are you?"

Buffy stood back up and sighed, "Some of you stay and take care of Faith, okay? I've got to go find the first and kick its butt out again."

"How exactly will you do that?" Tara asked, confused, "Isn't it all not of the physical? Does it have a butt to kick?"

"Nah. I'll just beat it's jabronies around, these monk guys with their eyes burnt out and then it'll skedaddle. It's actually pretty wimpy." Buffy explained.

"Do you want some help?" Kennedy asked.

Buffy shook her head, "Nah. I know what to expect. Just take care of Faith for me. Don't let her out of your sight."

With that, Buffy left and Faith sighed.

"Buffy to the rescue again." Xander sighed, "She looks great doing it but it's just so embarrassing when she rescues you."

"I know exactly what you mean." Faith said in agreement.

"Is anyone else weirded out that Faith is having a conversation with herself?" Willow asked the group.

"I do it all the time." Twist admitted freely, "Sometimes it's the only way to get an intelligent conversation."

"So what do we do with her?" Willow asked the others about Faith, "Shouldn't we tie her up or anything?"

Faith raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you swung that way, Red. Though, doesn't surprise me."

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Willow.

"Well, it's pretty self explanatory." Faith said with a chuckle and then gasped as a ball of pain rolled through her chest.

The world around her blacked out and Faith found herself in a grey world of pins and needles for a few seconds.

When her vision and senses returned everyone was looking down at her. Although now, everyone was just Kennedy, Willow and Tara. The others had disappeared and she felt as if she had lost some time.

"Easy." Tara told Faith, stopping her from getting up too fast.

"What was that?" Xander asked, speaking Faith's mind as they found themselves in a completely different room.

"You blacked out." Kennedy explained, "You don't remember? It looked painful."

"Is .. he .. still talking to you?" Tara asked timidly.

Faith raised an eyebrow at Xander, "Yeah. He's still here. And oh man, my head is really killing me now. Could someone get me an aspirin?"

"I'll get it." Tara said and left the room.

Xander gasped all of a sudden, "Faith! I'm not the first evil."

Faith groaned and laid herself back down on the couch she was in, "Yeah, sure you're not."

"I'm not!" Xander said frantically, "I'm just not. You've got to trust me."

"Compelling argument." Faith said sarcastically, "Let me get back to you on that."

"What are they saying?" Kennedy asked as she gave up trying to guess.

"Bla-bla, I'm not evil, bla-bla, you've got to trust me." Faith explained, "But it doesn't matter really. Even if he was Xander, I still wouldn't listen to him."

"Faith. Buffy's in danger!" Xander yelled at her and she perked up at that.

"Yeah. From you." Faith snorted.

"That's right. From the first evil." Xander agreed.

"Which is you." Faith pointed out, "You're going to admit it now?"

"Faith, it's very important you listen." Xander said slowly, "I'm not the first evil but you were just talking to them. I knocked you out."

Faith frowned, "You knocked me out?"

"Yes. To regain control!" Xander yelled, "Do you remember back at Buffy's, outside when you were going to your bike? You almost fainted and you got a pain in your chest. That was when it shunted me out of your body so it could take my place. I only just made it back in. Buffy's in danger. The first set a trap for her."

Faith was trying to be skeptical but something about this rung true for her.

"A trap?" Faith asked.

"When I pushed it out, I got a few of its memories. Buffy's important. Not just in a saving the world capacity either. There's something about her, something more than just being a Slayer and more than just someone who saves the world every few months. The First normally doesn't get scared but it's petrified of her. Faith, I know you don't want to care here but we have to do something. We have to do something now."

Faith considered this and asked "Have you got a plan?"

Xander nodded in a so-so way, "I'm formulating one."

"What's he saying?" Kennedy asked, looking away at a poster on the opposite wall.

Faith got up and took a deep breath to focus herself. When Kennedy turned back around, Faith slugged her across the chin then tapped Willow in the forehead.

Kennedy went out like a light but Willow fell down in a slump and stared back.

"You hit me." Willow said, shocked.

Faith grinned back evilly, "Yeah, well, aint payback a bitch?"

Then Faith kicked her in the head and Willow went straight out.

Xander winced, "You didn't have to hit her that hard."

"Yeah but I wanted to." Faith chuckled and walked out of the room. Outside the door, Tara was standing there with wide open eyes.

Rather than hit the blonde, Faith just pushed her to the floor and ran off in the opposite direction.

After picking herself back up, Tara opened the door and saw Kennedy groan and ask "What hit me? Oh, God, Willow."

"Willow." Tara echoed, picking the unconscious redhead off the floor and checked her for injuries, "Did Faith do this?"

Kennedy nodded slowly, "Yeah. She did."

"Then that means…" Tara said with dread.

"Yeah, it means that!" said Kennedy, coming to the same conclusion, "We've got to warn Buffy before Faith kills her."

OXOXOX

Buffy crept into the First's underground cave and found it to be empty except for the image of a smirking Xander in the middle of the room.

Seeing that there was little point in stealth, Buffy relaxed slightly and said "You really need to get a new hideout. How stupid are you? You harass one of my friends and then you rent out the same cave as last time? How cheap is that?"

"But if I moved how would you ever find me?" the first asked back, "You do know that I wanted you to find me, don't you?"

Buffy frowned, "But I don't see any trap here. In fact, I don't see anything here, except the moody black candles. And what is that smell?"

Xander shrugged and walked around Buffy, "I wanted to talk to you for a while. You know, before I kill you."

"Kinda mouthy for someone who, you know, can't kill me."

Xander chuckled, "Yeah, I guess I am. Oh, you might want to take that call."

Buffy raised an eyebrow and then her cellphone started ringing.

A little uncomfortable, Buffy took the phone out and asked "You don't mind, do you?"

The first evil shook its head, "Go ahead. I'll wait. What's one more minute?"

Buffy took out the cellphone and listened to a frantic Giles on the other side.

"Um, Giles, this isn't a good time." Buffy hissed back, "I'm kinda facing off with a primeval force of malicious intent."

"Get out of there." Giles told her, "It's controlling Faith. She ran off, we suspect to kill you."

Buffy frowned, "Wait, Faith? But she couldn't. She's got her chip."

"It's not working anymore." Giles said quickly, "Buffy, run now."

Buffy calmly closed the phone and glared at the first.

"I guess I'm not so toothless now, am I?" Xander asked.

"You took out her chip!"

"I wish I could say it was part of my big plan but it's not. The truth is, ooh, it's so juicy. The world's going to be brought to it's knees and then it's going to get rogered in the toger, long and hard. The funny thing about this is, I had nothing to do with it. It was you and your friends. I guess you could blame the powers that be. What were they thinking? sticking you lot together? It's so funny, you didn't even know what Xander was."

"What do you mean, what he was?" asked Buffy, "You're saying he .. was something?"

The first laughed out loud, "It's so funny. I wish you could see the world like I see it, Buffy."

"Hang on, back to Xander. What do you mean he was something? Something like what? Something like a potential Slayer?"

The First shook its head with a smirk, "Oh no. I've told you too much already. I think it's time that you started running."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked and looked behind her to see a squadron of hooded monks with their eyes burnt out, "Oh crap. They're sneaky."

"Running time." Xander reminded Buffy and without any more words, Buffy ran off, hoping to find a more suitable place to fight larger numbers.

OXOXOX

The base of the Sunnydale Police department.

Faith flicked on the lights and looked around, with Xander trailing behind her.

"You had better have a good reason for this." Faith growled at Xander, "If you don't, ghost or not, I'll find a way to hurt you."

"And the funny thing is I actually believe that." Xander said with smirk, "Now what you want is over here."

"And what do we want?" Faith asked curiously.

"Javelin rockets." Xander said, pointing to a crate, "Or you could go for the flame thrower. Either way, choose quickly. Buffy can't have a lot of time."

Faith looked the arsenal of heavy weapons over. After the demon riots earlier that year, Xander had made a point to stock up the basement with a wide variety of weapons. But Faith kept looking back at one weapon Xander didn't want her taking.

"What about that?" Faith asked, pointing to the armored sports car.

Xander groaned, "What about that? I don't think it'll help us."

Faith ignored him and took the keys off the wall.

"Faith! What are you doing?" Xander asked frantically, "We don't have time for this."

Ignoring him still, Faith got into the car and turned it on. Once she did, she got a crazy smile and said "We're taking this."

"We're not taking that." Xander said angrily as he looked in from the side window.

"Get in and get left behind." Faith taunted Xander.

Xander grunted something unmentionable and jumped straight through the side door and landed in the back seat.

After revving the engine hot, Faith spun wheels and drove up the ramp and out to street level.

OXOXOX

Outside on the streets, Buffy was literally running for her life.

The whole town seemed to be filled with eyeless, voiceless skinheads. She would run and then stumble into ambush after ambush.

Buffy knew what the First was doing. It was making her run to tire herself out. But Buffy didn't have a lot of choice. It seemed like every possible escape was just another ambush.

She didn't have much choice so she kept running until she found the last ambush.

This one had four large, muscular, somewhat pink and humanoid demons which Buffy didn't recognize.

"Oh crap." She said with a sinking feeling as demons came at her from in front while the bringers ran to catch up to her from behind.

Then she heard a screech of tires and a blue flash of lightning streaked across the harbingers, tossing them around like bowling pins.

Buffy gasped when she recognized that it was a car being driven by Faith.

"GET IN!" Faith yelled and Buffy quickly took the offer.

The four pink demons were shocked at this new development but only for a few seconds. After that, they charged.

Faith pressed a button on the dashboard and two rocket launchers rose out of the front bonnet, firing immediately.

Inside the car, Buffy ducked behind the dash but looked up to see the flash of the explosion wash over Faith's face.

"So that's where those rockets went." Xander mumbled to himself in the back seat.

"You saved me." Buffy said quickly, not only in surprise but in appreciation.

"You're not saved yet." Faith said, gunning the gas and speeding the car forward.

She pushed another button on the dash and forks of blue lightning arched out from the front grill as the car sped through the twin plumes of fire the rockets had just created.

Before they made their way through, they hit something and the car lurched up onto its side. They skidded like that for twenty feet until they hit one of the pink demons and they spun around, only to fall onto their roof.

Once they stopped, both of the slayers groaned.

"You really need some driving lessons." Buffy said, laughing slightly.

"I guess Xander was right." chuckled Faith but stopped when Buffy's side door opened and a bringer tried to pull her out. Buffy kicked at them, keeping them at bay but that was about all she could do in her current cramped condition.

Faith took a quick look out the fractured, front window and saw even more bringers coming to kill them. By their feet, she counted at least twenty. On a good day, her and Buffy should be able to handle that.

Faith decided it wasn't a good day and pushed a button on the dash, just as a bringer appeared right in front of the car. By the time she realized its proximity, it was too late.

The two rocket launchers popped out of the bonnet and Faith felt a white hot thud.

OXOXOX

"Faith." Buffy's frantic voice called Faith back from the darkness.

Faith's eyes opened and realized she wasn't in the car anymore. She was underground.

"What happened?" Faith asked.

"You caused a cave in." Buffy explained, "Easy. Don't move."

Faith moved and got up, "I'm fine."

"Faith. I don't believe it. You saved me." Buffy said, hugging Faith.

Faith squirmed out of the hug and pushed Buffy away, "God, B. Get a hold of yourself. Hey, where are we?"

Faith looked around the underground room they had fallen into. There was one large piece of the car burning in the corner and rubble littered the floor. There were also candles.

They were black candles, lining the edges of some sort of swirled spiral design on the floor. It looked like it was painted in blood but Faith could've jumped to that conclusion by the fact she could smell fresh kills.

"It doesn't matter." Buffy told Faith, "The bringers ran off and you saved me. Everyone thought you were coming to kill but you saved me instead. You proved them wrong."

"Did she?" Xander asked, "Save you, I mean. Did she really?"

By the way Buffy was glaring at Xander, Faith guessed that she could see him.

"You see him?" Faith asked, "Weird."

"You lost." Buffy laughed at the first, "Faith just single handedly blew your army up."

Xander laughed, walking forward, towards the girls, "That wasn't my play. That was just something to pass the time. I could've killed you any time, Buffy. I've got the power and I've got the means. I've always had it. But I've been cruel to stretch it out like this so this is the end. Now you die."

Buffy and Faith looked around, looking for something dangerous and finding nothing.

"You're going to talk to us to death?" Faith asked, "Because that would be more in character for Willow not Xander."

"Or maybe Giles." Buffy said with a smirk, "He does get wordy."

"Aint that the truth." Faith agreed.

"So what's the big bad this time?" Buffy asked the First evil, "We can handle it. Right, Faith?"

Faith blinked at Buffy and then smiled, finding she liked this act of comradeship, "Damn straight. Bring it on, spanky."

"You asked for it." Xander said, smiling evilly and then folding inside out and forming a giant floating, horned and legless skeleton, burning black with darkness except for it's eyes which burnt star-bright with piercing intensity.

An intensity which Faith found herself staring straight into and getting lost.

OXOXOX

Faith looked around a familiar room. It was her old motel room before she fell into her first coma.

She spun around, looking for danger but found none. It was comfortably quiet.

"Ohh-kay. Not what I was expecting." Faith spoke to herself.

"What were you expecting?" a familiar voice asked and Faith spun around to find herself face to face with a mirror copy of herself.

"Okay. What's going on here?" Faith demanded.

"I'm you." the mirror image said with a smile.

"Not you're not."

"No, I'm not." the duplicate agreed, "But I am part of you. You do realize that, don't you?"

"No, you're no part of me. You're that first evil thing."

"That's true too." the first admitted, "But I am still a part of you."

Faith didn't say anything, she just looked around the room and sighed, "So what now? Do we have to fight or something? Actually, a better question is why am I here? This is some sort of dream, isn't it? You picked a memory out of my head and that's where we are. But why here?"

The first raised an eyebrow, "You can't tell?"

"I can't tell what?"

"This is when you found your true self." the first said, licking its lips, "Not the party girl you think you are or the doctor you dreamed of being when you were a child. This is where you found out exactly who you were."

Faith raised an eyebrow, "Really? Here? You're not talking about that time I almost choked Xander to death, are you?"

"No. That was just a speed bump. Barely a blip on the radar. Think deeper."

Faith concentrated for a while then shook her head, "No. I can't figure it out. Gimme a clue, would ya?"

"Look on the bed."

Faith looked on the bed and found herself unable to move. She remembered this place now.

"Buffy." Faith whispered to herself.

On the bed, Buffy was sleeping peacefully.

"She looks so innocent, doesn't she?" the first asked as it curled up around Faith from behind, "She was so sheltered. She really had no idea how cruel the world could be. Not like you do."

"No." Faith whispered.

"This is where you opened your heart. She's been there ever since. You can still feel in your belly, in the cut that never healed." the first said, sticking its cold clammy hands under Faith's shirt to where Buffy had stabbed her.

"No."

"This is where you saw Buffy for who she really was. This is where you dreamt impossible dreams."

"No."

"But this would be the end of it. You couldn't feel emotion like that, could you? Not after everything you've been though. No, you're cold. You can't feel that way about anyone."

"NO!" Faith lashed out, striking at the first, knocking it to the ground, "You're dead, fucker!"

"Faith!" the first screamed, "What are you doing?"

With a blind fury, Faith picked up the first from the jacket then threw her at a wall.

The brick wall caved through and Faith jumped through after it, ready to kill it.

For an all-knowing son of a bitch, it was doing a good job of acting surprised and then it hobbled off.

Faith blinked at the retreating force of darkness and laughed out loud, "Oh! This is good! I can hurt you here, can't I? Let's see if I can kill you too."

Before the first turned the bend, Faith rushed forwards with even more speed than she possessed in the real world. Taking a page out of Harmony's book, Faith tackled the first and kept running with it. A few feet later and she shoulder barged them both straight through a wall and into an underground set of toilets.

This brought coughs of blood up from the first but didn't seem to phase Faith at all. She felt incredible.

No, she felt invincible.

With a wicked grin, she pulled out her favorite knife from the sheath under her jeans and brandished it in front of her duplicate. It was the same knife the mayor gave her a lifetime ago.

"So bitch, what should I cut off first?" Faith asked.

"Faith. Stop. Please." The first pleaded and Faith laughed.

"You want me to stop? You want ME to stop? But isn't this what you get off on? Knives and gaping stabbing wounds?"

"You're confused. You don't really want to kill me. It's the first, it's gotten into your head."

Faith faltered, "What are you talking about? Eh, screw this, you're dead."

"Wait! Just look in mirror." Faith's duplicate said and Faith did, guessing nothing too bad could come from it.

In the mirror, Faith was horror stricken with what she saw. Her eyes had turned into two black balls of doom and she was covered in dark blue veins and scars that seemed to be bleeding molasses.

Suddenly everything was so clear and on the floor, Buffy was badly beaten and possibly dying.

"Oh god." Faith gasped then felt something cold and mechanic grip her from the inside.

NO YOU DON'T! a voice rumbled, taking control of her.

"Buffy." Faith cried as she strained against her own muscles, "I can't stop it."

"Fight it." Buffy told her, "You can do it."

"I can't." Faith sobbed back, placing the dagger in Buffy's hands, "Do it."

Buffy looked down at the dagger and shook her head, "No. I can't do that again."

"Do it, B." Faith said, the demon inside her causing her to get a tight grip of the dagger even though it was in Buffy's hands, "I can't kill you. I can't."

"You're not giving up." Buffy growled at Faith, "Not you, not now, not ever. You don't get to do that."

Faith was now crying but sounded almost calm, resigned, "Kill me. B, I'm not afraid anymore. I just want you to know that I'm sorry for everything. I went crazy. It wasn't fair. I love.. I love you. I knew you're not gay. I knew you won't love me back, not like that. It hurt. I'm sorry."

Buffy blinked and the dagger sliced up, just nicking her across the collar bone.

Regaining her composure, Buffy pushed back and got herself upright.

"What did you say?" Buffy asked, just to be sure.

"I love you." Faith said, now with her eyes closed, "I love you, Buffy. I love you."

Buffy struggled with the knife and struggled to get her head around that. It could've been some sort of first evil mind trick but it didn't make a lot of a tactical sense.

"Kill me." Faith said, still with her eyes close, "You've got to kill me. It's what I deserve. It's okay."

Slowly, Faith's hands lifted off the dagger and Buffy had all the opportunity she needed.

She lifted back the dagger and stabbed.

Faith flinched but didn't feel any pain when it was driven deep.

She heard a sharp snapping sound and opened her eyes to find the blade of the dagger stuck in the floor and Buffy holding a broken handle.

"Why did you do that?" Faith asked.

"Because we don't need it anymore." Buffy said with a smile.

Faith didn't reply, she just slumped back and stared at the floor.

Buffy moved forward to hug her but stopped herself.

Faith loved her?

What did it take for Faith to admit that? What should Buffy do about it?

She wasn't sure but she didn't think hugging Faith would be the right move. Instead she slumped over to her side and pulled out the broken remains of her ultra high strength cellphone and punched in a speed dial.

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	6. The cut that never heals

OXOXOX

Ten minutes later and Faith was being held in a cell at the local PD, covered in a large blanket. Her eyes had turned from being pure darkness to two shields of gold, like they were when Xander shared space in her body in LA. They were the same eyes Buffy had when Giles entered her too. Buffy's wounds had healed with the help of Willow's goa'uld healing device and Faiths had healed too although that had nothing to do with Willow. Willow wasn't going anywhere near the magically potent Slayer. Fortunately for Faith, her Slayer powers had gone into some sort of overdrive so she didn't need any help.

She was really hungry though.

Outside of the cell, Tara, Willow, Buffy and Giles were standing, considering their options. Harmony was there too but not in a thinking capacity.

"What's happening to her?" Buffy asked Tara.

"I don't know." Tara said with a frown, "I don't see any of the dark magics that were in her before and her slayer powers doesn't look swelled at all. Her aura just seems.. bigger."

"And that means?" Buffy asked impatiently.

"I don't know." Tara admitted, lowering the Scythe, "I don't think I can see everything with this thing."

"Maybe she's gone insane." said Willow and at Gile's look, she added "Completely insane this time."

Tara shook her head, "That tends to make auras shrink, I think, and look more flickery. I don't think that's it. She looks .. stronger."

"Plus her eyes are doing that gold thing." Buffy added, "You'd have to be pretty crazy for that to happen."

"I've got a theory." said Twist as he entered the scene.

"Then by all means, tell us." Giles invited the little demon, "We're all ears."

"From what I gathered, Xander and Faith had some sort of psychic link to each other. The magics they performed together only strengthened that link. Did you know that they quite often shared their dreams?"

Giles shook his head and Willow said "No, Xander would've told us something like that."

"He didn't want to worry you." Twist told her, "Besides, he didn't really mind. He's always had nightmares even before he found out about vampires."

"How would you know this?" Buffy asked.

Twist grinned, "Dawn told me in a round about way. We've got our own psychic link when we're close. It's a twin thing."

"Yes, we know about Faith and Xander's connection." Giles told Twist, "But what does that have to do with her current condition?"

"It's simple." said Twist, "You get a connection like that and what? You think that just ends when one of them dies? No, the loss of the other person creates a vacuum, like a phantom limb. The First must have been using it as an entrance into Faith. In essence, it possessed her."

"So when she hit me, it was the First?" asked Willow.

"No. That was all me." Faith said from the cell.

Twist looked into the cell and said "One thing I don't know, how did you do it? How did you fight off the First like that? It's legendary for manipulating minds."

Faith went back to being quiet and Buffy asked Twist, "You really can't tell? I thought you were psychic."

Twist shook his head, "I mostly just pick up on dirty thoughts. Obviously an asset in my line of work."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "So, you'd know if Faith lusted after someone then?"

"She's remarkably easy to read."

"So what does she think about me?" Buffy asked while Giles furiously cleaned his glasses in the background.

Twist looked between Faith and Buffy for a few seconds before replying, "Umm. Not a lot going on there. A healthy amount of curiosity, not only in Faith but in you too Buffy. And there's something about Faith shackling you up while your boyfriend watches. Hmm, weird. But I wouldn't say she's lusting after you if that's what you want to know."

"What about me and Giles?" Harmony asked.

Twist laughed, "Oh, you two have oodles of noodles. No problems there."

Harmony giggled and squished up against Giles who was blushing red.

"Oh God, they're doing it again." Willow muttered under her breath and turned away from them.

Tara giggled, "Am I the only one who thinks those two together are a bit strange?"

Buffy chuckled, "You're not alone."

Willow growled, "Hey, we're getting away from the problem here. What are we going to do with Faith now?"

"I wouldn't worry." Twist told them, "The connection should dissolve in time. I'd give it a two, maybe three months until her mind rewires itself. Human minds are fascinating things. So fragile in some ways and yet so resilient in others. It's like that old Turkish proverb, man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose."

Willow blinked at him and shook her head, "No! Not THAT, I mean her! She doesn't have her chip anymore."

Twist blinked at her, "So?"

"So? What do you mean so! She could hurt any human she wants now." Willow said frantically.

"You know I'm not human, don't you?" Twist asked, "So I don't really care."

"And she hasn't been hurting me." Harmony added, "Except for being mean."

Tara nodded, "She really is mean."

"Hey but now she can she have sex with anyone she wants too." Harmony said with a bright smile, "So she's bound to be happier, right? Which means less moody."

Twist nodded, "That's how it works for me."

"But she's not having sex with my Rupert." Harmony said, calling back into Faith's cell.

Faith groaned, "I was joking about that."

Harmony smirked, "It didn't sound like a joke."

Buffy's mouth fell open and she shivered a little with revulsion. Giles had been inside her head and she felt she knew him quite well now but the thought of sleeping with him would always be fundamentally abhorrent to her. It would be like kissing her sister.

Actually, maybe worse but kissing Dawn would undoubtedly be very confusing. There was the fact that Buffy had grown fond of Tell before kicking him out of Sunnydale and the fact that she now knew Dawn wasn't her sister. But Dawn was a girl and a very young looking girl and she had a strong bent towards kinky piercing if Kennedy was to be believed. Okay, maybe Buffy would kiss Dawn to attract some cute boys or if they were dared to while drunk during the mardi gras but beyond that it would be plain weird.

"Buffy." Willow said, waving a hand in front of her face, "You still there?"

Buffy shook her head, "Sorry. I was away with the pixies for a while there."

"What are we going to do with Faith?" Willow asked, "Do you think we could ask the stargate people to repair her chip? Maybe make a new one?"

"No." Buffy said sternly.

Willow frowned, "Oh, okay. Then, uh, maybe we could do something magical. Like strip her Slayer powers or some sort of binding spell."

"No." Buffy said, a little more sternly.

Willow squinted at Buffy, weirdly, "W-well, what do you want to do?"

"Nothing." Buffy said flatly.

"But we've got to do something. Buffy, she's.. she's Faith."

"I don't care. She just saved my life. Not only that but apparently one of the greatest evils in existence just possessed her and she fought them off, not to save her own skin but to save mine. I say we leave her alone for now. She's earned it."

"But she was acting all crazy on that dark magic. It can screw with your head." Willow argued, "Once it wears off, she might go back to her old self."

"She won't. I have.. I have faith in her." Buffy said with a smile, still finding that joke funny.

"Besides, her chip hasn't been working for weeks." Twist said casually, "And she didn't kill you any of you in that time."

Giles blinked at him, "You.. You knew?"

Twist nodded, "Dawn figured it out and made me promise not to tell anyone. She knew Faith wanted to change. She had faith in her too."

Buffy chuckled, "Oh man. I am so going to kill her when I find her. Talking of which, where is Dawn anyway?"

Twist cleared his throat with a cough, "She's just grieving in her own way. I don't think she wants to be interrupted."

Buffy nodded, "Dawn really loved Xander."

Twist smirked, "Actually, it was mainly lust but I think there was some love in there too."

Buffy stared at Twist and shook her head in disbelief, "God, why do we let you hang around?"

"Now you're calling me God, huh?" Twist chuckled, "Forget being drunk at the mardi gras, THAT is kinky."

Buffy blinked at him, "I can't believe… That's it. Get out of here. All of you, go home. I'll watch over Faith tonight and make sure she doesn't do anything crazy."

"Are.. are you sure?" Giles asked as Buffy started pushing them out of the room.

"Yes. Now go."

OXOXOX

At the wedding chapel.

The room was full of Vengeance demons. They were lying in the pews, slouched against walls, reminiscing of times gone by and old wrongs.

D'Hoffryn appears out of thin air and looked around the room. The rest of the room straightened up at his approach.

"What is going on?" D'Hoffryn demanded, "Why are you all hanging around here and not doing your jobs?"

"But we are on the job." Halfrek said angrily, "You know, that vengeance thing we do."

D'Hoffryn looked at her oddly and frowned when he heard what sounded like a hurricane outside.

"What is going on?" the large demon asked, "Where.. what is this place?"

"It's where you die." Dawn said, standing out of the crowd.

D'Hoffryn look at Dawn, "I remember you. You were one of the bridesmaids. Who are you?"

"I'm Dawn and I've summoned all these vengeance demons to wreak my vengeance on you."

D'Hoffryn laughed then easily said "Who are you to say that? Girls, kill her."

The demons didn't move.

"I command you, kill her!" D'Hoffryn ordered them angrily.

"We're done with you." one of the demons told him, "We know what you did to Anyanka."

"I didn't do anything." D'Hoffryn said with worry on his face as he found himself unable to summon his powers to the surface.

"You can't teleport." Dawn told D'Hoffryn, "With your vengeance demons-"

"Justice demons." Halfrek hissed at Dawn.

Dawn raised an eyebrow at her but corrected herself, "Yes, with the help of your justice demons and some outside help, we've created a small pocket dimension, just for you. Once you're in it, you're trapped here. No teleportation, no magic, no nothing. Just your death."

"You!" D'Hoffryn scowled at his demons, "You would betray me? I made you all what you are now. "

"You lied to us!" Halfrek told him, "We know everything. It was you who brought that demon to kill Anya."

"I did no such thing." D'Hoffryn yelled back and pointed at Dawn, "It's that girl, she's poisoned your mind."

Dawn shook her head, "The demon was banished by Anyanka to a hell dimension to be tortured for the rest of eternity. You're the only one who could've brought the demon here because you're the only one who can reverse a vengeance demons curse. You teleported him to Sunnydale, you gave him a glamour to fool Xander and you gave him THIS to brainwash Xander to leave Anya."

In her hand, she held the glowing crystal orb which the demon used on Xander earlier and kept talking "You couldn't have Anya happily married could you? Because that would've given your other demons ideas. It would make them question certain parts of vengeance. You see, Anya was finally starting to understand was love was. Xander made her mad, he corrected and put her down, he disregarded so much of her experience and what she had to say but the thing was he did love her and despite his faults and his naivety she was better for loving him back. But that wasn't the worst part was it?"

"You're delusional." D'Hoffryn spat at Dawn.

Dawn shook her head, "No, I'm not. What you were really scared of could've torn down your empire. Anya was on the cusp on realizing that for all of her years as a vengeance demon, she was wreaking more injustice on the world than those she had punished. This is something all vengeance demons hear but if it came from Anyanka, one of your chosen few, how would they take it then?"

"You can't believe that!" D'Hoffryn told the people who were supposed to be serving him, "She's lying."

"She's not." Halfrek defended Dawn, "We know because you made us sensitive to her plight. I can feel her hate for you and it's the most pure thing I've ever felt."

"No. It's not like that. She's tricking you somehow." D'Hoffryn tried to reason with them, backing away from the approaching demons.

"The heart never lies." Halfrek told him, "You told us that."

D'Hoffryn backed up into a vengeance demon and spun around, "Yulnack. You too?"

The girl with a face covered in scars snarled at him and pushed him over, "I never liked that name."

With that, the rest of the girls jumped on him, scratching and clawing and kicking.

He screamed as his own servants literally started tearing into him. After half a minute or so he stopped abruptly but not because he was unconscious but because one of them was strangling his thick neck and stopping the screams.

While this was happening, Dawn watching with a detached look until D'Hoffryn finally died and the vengeance demons backed up off the gory remains of his body.

"Is that what you wanted?" one of them asked.

Dawn frowned, "It's strange. I thought it would make me feel, I don't know, better. You know?"

The one who asked shrugged.

"I suppose I should let you all out now." said Dawn.

She walked across the room to the large doors at the front entrance and opened them. As she did, electric white arcs flickered up and down the opening and eventually flashed like lightning as the spell keeping the demons inside broke down.

With that, the demons started teleporting out. One of them muttered something about never being able to get blood out of their shoes as they teleported.

With the doors open, Dawn kept walking out of the chapel and approached the five people waiting outside. The five were the Charmed ones, their white lighter and Twist who had somehow found his way there.

"How did it go?" Phoebe asked.

"As good as can be expected." Dawn replied, "D'Hoffryn's dead."

"I'm still not sure about letting all those demons go." Piper said to Dawn, "From what the book of shadows says they're really dangerous."

Dawn shook her head, "Wars aren't won with a bodycount. Wars are won when ideals triumph over tyranny. Any other way and its still war. Right now, they don't have an overlord, their world view has been shaken so maybe, just maybe, this could be the start of something beautiful."

Twist added "Besides, with D'Hoffryn dead, a civil war will break out in Arashmaharr and the creation of new vengeance demons will be put on hold for oh, I'd say around three centuries or more. That is unless if D'Hoffryn had taught disciples in his arts. He didn't strike as the type."

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Paige asked Twist, "Because you look a lot like that demon we kicked out of this town a few months back."

Twist nodded, "Yeah. That was my twin brother. He's a real pain in the ass."

Dawn glared at him, "Twist."

"What?" Twist chuckled, "It's true. Such a tight ass."

Dawn sighed and asked Twist "How's Faith?"

Twist smiled, "All patched up and it only took Faith saving Buffy's life to do it."

Dawn blinked at him, "Faith .. Faith saved Buffy's life?"

Twist nodded.

"Wow. That's kinda screwed up." Dawn said then quickly turned to the Charmed ones and said "Oh and thank you so much for your help. We couldn't have done it without you."

"That's fine." Piper told her, "I mean, we got to kill a big powerful demon. It saves us doing it later."

Phoebe nodded, "They all seem to turn up in Frisco sooner or later."

Twist smiled at the girls, "Well, I hear it gets nice weather this time of year."

Dawn tilted her head at Twist then glared, "Oi! I know that look."

"What look?" Twist asked, offended, "I wasn't thinking anything."

"Yes you were." Dawn laughed, "And you can stop thinking it now. They're the charmed ones. You don't want to mess with their love lives. They've got enough problems."

"Excuse me but what are you two talking about?" Phoebe asked.

"My friend here, Twist." Dawn said, introducing the little demon, "He's quite different from Tell. You see, Tell, he's good at killing and murdering and things of that nature. Twist, he's .. I don't know how to explain it."

"I'm more of a diplomat." Twist explained for her.

Dawn laughed, "I've never heard it called that before."

"But it's true. I like bringing together. It's so much more satisfying. Don't you think?"

"So you're like a matchmaker?" Phoebe asked.

Twist nodded in a so-so way, "Sometimes. I like to give people what they need. Some people just need an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on. In Buffy's case, I gave her a friend who I hope will help fill that hole in her heart."

"You found her a boyfriend?" Paige asked, "Okay. That's cool."

Dawn and Twist shared a smile.

"What is it?" Paige asked.

"I never said this new friend was a boy, did I?" Twist asked, "Oh don't give me that look. Lesbianism is so in this season."

"Ahha!" Phoebe said pointedly to Paige, "I told you she was gay!"

OXOXOX

Buffy and Faith were spooning in their sound and peaceful sleep. Faith's arms were protectively wrapped around Buffy from behind. It wasn't a post coitus embrace but merely two people cold from the loss of their friends.

They both had realized Twist had lied about them having just a healthy curiosity to eachother but neither of them felt the need to push it tonight since the bed sheets were still wet from their tears as they cried themselves to sleep.

Xander and Anya had touched them in ways they had yet to understand.

Buffy and Faith both dealt with death differently but they both swore to themselves that they would remember the couple. They both felt it was important to remember them, to keep a small part of them still alive in their hearts.

Both of them believed that in remembering the lives and loves of those that had gone before them, sometimes you learn how to live for yourselves.

OXOXOX

FIN

OXOXOX

Authors notes:

This one REALLY didn't want to write itself but I finally finished it. Phew. It's kinda clunky in parts but there are some parts I kinda liked writing.

Anyway, feedback people! It all helps me improve. If there's enough interest I might even continue this series.


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